We report here the whole-genome sequence of the USA300 strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), designated ATCC BAA-1680, and commonly referred to as community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA). This clinical MRSA isolate is commercially available from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and is widely utilized as a control strain for research applications and clinical diagn...

To evaluate the incidence and characteristics of carriers of conjunctival methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococci (MRCNS) among preoperative patients at an eye clinic, bacterial growth was studied in 978 conjunctival specimens of 628 preoperative patients without signs of ocular infection. Specimens were evaluated for growth ...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of health care-associated infections. Multiple factors, including transmission from unrecognized reservoirs of MRSA, are responsible for failure to control the spread of MRSA. We conducted prospective surveillance to determine the frequency of gastrointestinal colonization with MRSA among patients and its possible impact on nos...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a significant pathogen in both nosocomial and community settings, and screening for carriers is an important infection control practice in many hospitals. In this retrospective study, we demonstrate that the implementation of an MRSA screening protocol using a selective chromogenic medium (MRSASelect) reduced the workload for this screening ...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the performance of oxacillin, cefazolin, cefoxitin, cefotaxime and imipenem discs; Etest for oxacillin; microdilution; agar screening plates with 2 and 6 mg/L of oxacillin; and PBP2' agglutination for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). METHODS A total of 102 clinical S. aureus isolates, including 51 MRSA isolates, tested by PCR for the pres...

The Mastalex MRSA latex agglutination method was evaluated with 52 methicillin-resistant and 27 methicillin-susceptible strains of Staphylococcus aureus grown on various media. All tests were correct with colonies grown on blood agar with or without oxacillin 2 mg/L. Tests on colonies grown on mannitol salt agar were less reliable, although addition of oxacillin 2 mg/L improved performance. One...

BACKGROUND Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among hospital personnel is a common cause of hospital acquired infections. Emergence of drug resistant strains especially methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is a serious problem in hospital environment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the nasal carriage rate of S. aureus and MRSA among Health Care Workers (HCWs) at Al Shi...