Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clones with distinct clinical and microbiological features in a Korean community

Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is well established as a major pathogen in healthcare-associated infections, but in recent years it has also become increasingly common in community-acquired infections. Community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) strains are characterized by the predominance of staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec (SCCmec) type IV, the lack of multi-drug resistance, and the presence of specific toxins, including Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and occasionally exfoliative toxins. CA-MRSA has been shown to arise from diverse clones rather than from the worldwide spread of specific clones, and in Asian countries the most predominant PVL-positive CA-MRSA clone is sequence type (ST)30 (Takizawa et al., 2005; Hsu et al., 2006; Wijaya et al., 2006).