Mupirocin Resistance in Staphylococcus aureus Causing Recurrent Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in Children

Abstract

ABSTRACTStaphylococcus aureusresistance to mupirocin is often caused by acquisition of a novel isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase encoded on the plasmid genemupA. We testedS. aureusisolates from children at Texas Children's Hospital with recurrent skin and soft tissue infections for mupirocin resistance andmupA. Of 136 isolates, 20 were resistant to mupirocin (14.7%). Fifteen isolates (11%) carriedmupA, and the gene was more common in methicillin-susceptibleS. aureus(21.4%) than methicillin-resistantS. aureus(8.3%;P= 0.03). Seven of 20 mupirocin-resistant isolates displayed clindamycin resistance.