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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, November 2000, p. 3926-3931, Vol. 38, No. 11
Microbiology Department, Queensland Health
Pathology Service, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba
4102,1 Brisbane Southside Public Health
Unit, Coopers Plains 4108,2 and
Microbiology Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital,
Camperdown 2050,3 Australia
Received 12 April 2000/Returned for modification 28 June
2000/Accepted 18 August 2000
Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA) susceptible to gentamicin has been reported in a
number of countries in the 1990s. To study the acquisition of
gentamicin-sensitive MRSA (GS-MRSA) in southeast Queensland and the
relatedness of GS-MRSA to other strains of MRSA, 35 cases of infection
due to GS-MRSA from October 1997 through September 1998 were examined retrospectively to determine the mode of acquisition and risk factors
for MRSA acquisition. Thirty-one isolates from the cases were examined
using a variety of methods (antibiotyping, phage typing, pulsed-field
gel electrophoresis [PFGE] fingerprinting, and coagulase typing by
restriction analysis of PCR products) and were compared with strains of
local hospital-acquired gentamicin-resistant MRSA (GR-MRSA) and of
Western Australian MRSA (WA-MRSA). Only 6 of 23 cases of
community-acquired GS-MRSA had risk factors for MRSA acquisition.
Twenty of 21 isolates from cases of community-acquired infection were
found to be related by PFGE and coagulase typing and had similar phage
typing patterns. Hospital- and nursing home-acquired GS-MRSA strains
were genetically and phenotypically diverse. Community-acquired GS-MRSA
strains were not related to nosocomial GR-MRSA or WA-MRSA, but phage
typing results suggest that they are related to GS-MRSA previously
reported in New Zealand.
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Community Acquisition of Gentamicin-Sensitive
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Southeast
Queensland, Australia

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: QHPS
Microbiology Department, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba,
Queensland 4102, Australia. Phone: 61 7 3240 2389. Fax: 61 7 3240 5786. E-mail: nimmog{at}health.qld.gov.au.
Present address: Microbiology Department, The Prince Charles
Hospital, Chermside 4032, Australia.
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