Dissemination and Molecular Characterization ofStaphylococcus aureusat a Tertiary Referral Hospital in Xiamen City, China

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureusis a global epidemic pathogen that causes heavy disease burden. The aim of this study was to determine which globally knownS. aureuslineages are currently present in a hospital of Xiamen. Therefore, the 426S. aureusstrains were detected by Melting Curve Analysis (MCA) and genotyped by Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) as well as Multicolor Melting Curve Analysis-Based Multilocus Melt Typing (MLMT). In addition, Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) was used to identify 108 representative strains. In light of eighteen antibiotics except for Vancomycin (by Broth Dilution Method), we used the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method to assess antibiotic susceptibility of 426S. aureusstrains. Finally, PFGE analysis revealed 14 different patterns with three major patterns (C10, C8, and C11) that accounted for 69.42% of allS. aureusstrains, and MT-1~MT-5 occupied most part of the strains by MLMT. MLST revealed 25 different STs with the predominant types being ST239, ST59, and ST188. There have been 8 antibiotics that showed more than 50% resistance of allS. aureusstrains. In summary, we found several of the lineages are predominant in our hospital. And antibiotic resistance is still a severe problem that needs to be controlled in clinic.