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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 1999, p. 2858-2862, Vol. 37, No. 9
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Community Strain of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Involved in a Hospital Outbreak

F. G. O'Brien,1 J. W. Pearman,2 M. Gracey,3 T. V. Riley,4 and W. B. Grubb1,*

School of Biomedical Sciences, Molecular Genetics Research Unit, Curtin University of Technology,1 Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Royal Perth Hospital,2 School of Public Health, Curtin University of Technology, and Office of Aboriginal Health, Health Department of Western Australia,3 and Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Western Australian Centre for Pathology and Medical Research, Queen Elizabeth The Second Medical Centre and Department of Microbiology, The University of Western Australia,4 Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Received 8 April 1999/Returned for modification 14 May 1999/Accepted 15 June 1999

Western Australia (WA) has been able to prevent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains from outside of the state from becoming established in its hospitals. Recently, a single-strain outbreak of MRSA occurred in a WA metropolitan teaching hospital following admission of an infected patient from a remote community. The strain responsible for the outbreak was unrelated to any imported strains and spread rapidly in the hospital. Screening of two remote communities in the region from which the index case came revealed that 42% of the people in one community and 24% in the other carried MRSA. Isolates were typed by resistance pattern, plasmid analysis, contour-clamped homogeneous electric field electrophoresis, bacteriophage pattern, and coagulase gene restriction fragment length polymorphism. It was found that of the people carrying MRSA, 39% in the former community and 17% in the latter community were carrying an MRSA strain which was indistinguishable from the strain that caused the hospital outbreak.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. Phone: 61-8-9266 7512. Fax: 61-8-9266 2342. E-mail: igrubbw{at}info.curtin.edu.au.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 1999, p. 2858-2862, Vol. 37, No. 9
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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