Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the community in Hong Kong

Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains producing the potent tissue necrotizing toxin Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) encoded by the pvl gene, and harbouring SCCmec type IV or V elements, have been implicated as being associated with MRSA infection acquired in the community setting (Vandenesch et al., 2003; Boyle-Vavra & Daum, 2007). Since the 1990s, community-associated (CA)-MRSA infections have shown a steady increase, and are becoming a significant public-health concern. PVL-positive MRSA isolates have been shown to have distinct genetic backgrounds in different areas, for instance, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) types ST80, ST8 and ST59 were found in the major clones in Europe, USA and Taiwan, respectively (Vandenesch et al., 2003; Tristan et al., 2007; Chen et al., 2005).