This paper describes a fatal case of culture-confirmed, community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia in an 8-month-old child in Hong Kong in 2001. Stored cytological materials prepared from the pleural fluid were retrieved for molecular analysis. The result indicates the presence of a Panton-Valentine leucocidin-positive, spa type 019 MRSA.

OBJECTIVE Determining the prevalence of nasal carriage of S. aureus, both sensitive to methicillin and resistant to it, in preschool children and evaluating the presence of Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes in the isolates. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study in which cultures from anterior nares were obtained from healthy preschool children. Isolates were identified as S. aureus based o...

The majority of Staphylococcus aureus infections from Isfahan, Iran, were caused by epidemic methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) lineages, sequence type 8 (ST8), ST22, ST30, and ST6. The predominant methicillin-resistant S. aureus strain was ST239. We observed a high prevalence of Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive MSSA strains (19.7%), which is a matter of considerable concern, since th...

Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) production by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was determined in vitro using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and associations with clinical presentation and bacterial genetic characteristics were examined. PVL production ranged from 0.02 to 4.865 μg/ml and correlated with a multilocus sequence type (MLST) clonal complex associat...

INTRODUCTION Nasal colonisation of S. aureus in healthy children was 18% to 30%. One to three percent of them were colonised by Methicillin-resistant Staphlycoccus aureus (MRSA). Although MRSA infection has become increasingly reported, population-based S. aureus and MRSA colonisation estimates are lacking. The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of S. aureus carriage a...

The test is an application of the method originally described by Boyden (1951) and adapted by Stavitsky and Arquilla (1958). Sera which contain anti-Panton-Valentine leucocidin agglutinate the prepared red cells, often to a very high dilution, and this has provided a useful serological test for the diagnosis of staphylococcal disease in orthopaedic lesions. The test is quicker as a routine inve...

The need for a reliable serological test for occult staphylococcal infection has long been evident, especially for the diagnosis of lesions of the spine and hip. Earlier reports on the use of the anti-a-haemolysin (Lack and Shelswell, 1955; Lack, 1957), and anti-leucocidin tests (Towers and Gladstone, 1958; Towers, 1961) have placed us in a position to compare the value of these two tests; anti...

The Staphylococcus aureus gamma-hemolysin comprises two polypeptides, whereas the gamma-hemolysin locus (hlg) contains three open reading frames. The hlgA and hlgB genes encode the gamma 1 and gamma 2 components, respectively. The HlgB protein (gamma 2) has 27% residue identity with S. aureus alpha-toxin. Surprisingly, hlgB and hlgC are 98.5 and 99.1% identical to the lukF and lukS genes, respe...

Staphylococcus aureus encoding Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) genes has become the cause of life-threatening infections. We describe a case of carotid cavernous fistula after bacteremia in a 12-year-old male, caused by a methicillin-susceptible S. aureus isolate carrying the pvl, fnbA, and ebpS genes and related to sequence type 25 (ST25). The patient's condition was complicated by pleural e...

BACKGROUND The emergence of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that can persist in the community and replace existing hospital-adapted lineages of MRSA means that it is necessary to understand transmission dynamics in terms of hospitals and the community as one entity. We assessed the use of whole-genome sequencing to enhance detection of MRSA transmission between these settings....