A Norwegian nosocomial outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus resistant to fusidic acid and susceptible to other antistaphylococcal agents
Bm. Andersen et al., A Norwegian nosocomial outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus resistant to fusidic acid and susceptible to other antistaphylococcal agents, J HOSP INF, 41(2), 1999, pp. 123-132
In Norway, infections caused by methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) are still uncommon. From December 1993 to January 1997, MRSA was is
olated from 22 people in Oslo county; 17 patients and five carriers (health
care workers). A cluster of ten people (five patients and five healthcare w
orkers) were associated with an outbreak at two hospitals in Oslo. The five
patients were all admitted to the same intensive care unit (ICU) at Ullev
(a) over circle l University Hospital between May-July 1995 (they were not
transferred from abroad) and treated for acute neurological lesions. After
surgery, four of them (one died) were transferred to another hospital for r
ehabilitation and training. The presence of A MRSA was discovered in the pa
tients and the five healthcare workers during the 10 months June 1995-March
1996. All cluster strains showed an unusual antibiotic resistance pattern
in vitro, with a relatively low degree of methicillin resistance, resistanc
e to fusidic acid, but sensitivity to all other anti-staphylococcal agents.
A clonal sp read of this fusidic acid resistant MRSA was supported by stra
in typing using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), which showed that
all ten cluster strains belonged to one type or its subtype.