To investigate the molecular epidemiological analysis of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from five pediatric hospitals in China. Seventy-three MRSA isolates were analyzed by a combination of different genotyping methods, including multilocus sequence typing (MLST), SCCmec and spa typing. Panton-Valentine Leukocin (PVL) gene was also detected. The prevalent strains were ST239-MRSA-III and ST1-MRSA clones in the northern region; ST239-MRSA-III, ST910-MRSA-IV and ST88-MRSA in the eastern region; and ST59-MRSA in the southern region. Only the ST910-MRSA-IV clone has been found in China until now, and it is closely related to ST30-MRSA-IV. All MRSA isolates were found to be resistant to penicillin and azithromycin, and multidrug resistance was observed. The cases of necrotic pneumonia, severe skin and subcutaneous tissue infection and lymphadenitis resulted from PVL gene-positive MRSA. There were several novel genetic types of MRSA. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests showed high resistance of many antimicrobials and multiple drugs.
基金：
Acknowledgements This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2004BA720A09-01). Our special thanks go to Professor Teruyo Ito of Juntendo University, Japan for the reference MRSA strains used as control for SCCmec typing. We also thank Professors Yuan Chen, Min Huang, Yi Wang, Qiyi Zeng, Maohuai Fan, Jinghui Zhen and Xiaohong Wang for their assistance in collecting the clinical isolates. Finally, we are grateful to Dr. Patricia Ferrieri of the University of Minnesota, USA for her valuable suggestions.
