RAPID GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD OF A METHICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS STRAIN

In May 1993, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureu s (MRSA) was identified at our tertiary care teaching center, The epid emic MRSA strain was transmitted efficiently in the hospital environme nt, Subsequent investigations indicated that the strain had been intro duced into western Canada by a patient who had recently been hospitali zed for 3 months in the Punjab, India, and had been admitted to a hosp ital in rural British Columbia shortly after his arrival in Canada, Tr ansfer of the patient to a hospital in Vancouver and subsequent transf er of a colonized patient contact to a hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, resulted in major outbreaks of MRSA at these two large tertiary care centers within 6 weeks of the arrival of the index case in Canada, Epi demiological typing of the S. aureus coagulase gene with use of a poly merase chain reaction method and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis docu mented clonality of this strain, These outbreaks again illustrate both the propensity of certain strains of S. aureus to produce epidemic di sease, including rapid spread within the institutional setting, and th e global nature of problems with antimicrobial resistance.