T. Essawi et al., MOLECULAR, ANTIBIOGRAM AND SEROLOGICAL TYPING OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS ISOLATES RECOVERED FROM AL-MAKASED-HOSPITAL IN EAST JERUSALEM, TM & IH. Tropical medicine & international health, 3(7), 1998, pp. 576-583
Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of nosocomial infections and a
risk in patients who have either undergone surgery or are oil haemodia
lysis. The S. aureus infections in patients admitted to the clinical d
epartments of Al-Makased Charitable Hospital in Jerusalem during a per
iod of one year were investigated. Isolates included were from blood,
surgical wounds, or other nonsuperficial sites. Of 63 isolates availab
le for analysis, 46 (73.0%) expressed type 8 capsular polysaccharide;
13 (20.7%), type 5 capsular polysaccharide; only 4 isolates (6.3%) did
not express type 5 or type 8 antibodies. The strains fitted in 7 diff
erent antibiogram types, with the type showing resistance only to peni
cillin and ampicillin prevalent in 34 out of 63 isolates (54.0%). Of t
he 12 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates (19.1%), 8(66.7%
) possessed the type 8 capsule and 4(33.7%) the type 5 capsule. Pulsed
-field gel electrophoresis of all isolates with the restriction-endonu
clease enzymes Sma I revealed 34 patterns demonstrating that no single
methicillin-sensitive S, aureus strain was endemic in the hospital. H
owever, all MRSA isolates with a type 8 capsule showed identical PFGE
patterns using the 2 restriction-endonuclease enzymes Sma I and SST II
. Moreover, type 5 isolates showed identical patterns (one isolate dif
fered from the rest with one band only). These data suggest and confir
m the clonality of type 5 and type 8 MRSA isolates. Analysing the resu
lts of the capsular and antibiogram typing schemes in conjunction prov
ed useful and suggested that such an analysis can be employed as a hel
pful epidemiological tool in hospitals with limited resources.