Multidrug-Resistant Iberian Epidemic Clone of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Endemic in a Hospital in Northern Portugal

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Forty-two methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates collected during 1992–1995 at a hospital in the north of Portugal were characterized by a variety of genomic fingerprints. Hybridization of Cla I and Sma I restriction digests with the mecA - and Tn 554 -specific DNA probes was used to identify polymorphs and determine their localization in chromosomal DNA preparations, and pulsed-field gel electrophoretic analysis of Sma I digests was used to determine chromosomal backgrounds. A major clone (and its variants) carrying the mecA polymorph I, Tn 554 type E in the PFGE background of pattern A, accounted for 85% of all MRSA tested in 1992–1993 and 66% in 1994–1995. This clone is closely related to the epidemic Iberian clone that was associated with outbreaks in Spain during 1989–1993 and was endemic in 1992–1993 in two hospitals in Lisbon (Portugal).

This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit: