La. Teixeira et al., GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD OF EPIDEMIC MULTIRESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS CLONE IN BRAZIL, Journal of clinical microbiology, 33(9), 1995, pp. 2400-2404
Staphylococcus aureus isolates from five large teaching hospitals and
one medium-size community hospital located in geographically distant p
arts of Brazil, in the south and southeast (Rio de Janeiro, Niteroi, S
ao Paulo, Porto Alegre) and in the north (Manaus), were tested for the
ir antibiotic resistance patterns and genetic backgrounds, Eighty-five
of the 152 isolates were identified as methicillin-resistant S. aureu
s (MRSA) by using a combination of an agar dilution screen and a mecA
gene-specific DNA probe, All MRSA isolates were resistant to penicilli
n, erythromycin, gentamicin, oxacillin, and cephalothin, and the major
ity of isolates (74%) were also resistant to chloramphenicol, sulfamet
hoxazole-trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin, and clindamycin as well and were
susceptible only to vancomycin, Isolates obtained from hospitals in S
ao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Niteroi, and Porto Alegre (1,600 km from one
another) and Manaus (3,700 km from Rio de Janeiro) were examined by a
variety of molecular fingerprinting techniques: the nature of the mec
A polymorph and Tn554 attachment sites and restriction fragment length
polymorphism of genomic DNAs after SmaI restriction and separation of
the digested DNA by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, The overwhelmin
g majority of the isolates shared a common pulsed-field gel electropho
resis pattern and carried mecA polymorph III in combination with Tn554
pattern B, indicating the presence of a single, epidemic MRSA clone s
pread over large geographic distances of Brazil.