title: Labile antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.
abstract: Twenty-two isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, recovered from patients over a period of about one year, exhibited low level resistance to mupirocin, developed a salmon pink colour on culture and 21 had the same phage-type. However the plasmid profiles and associated antibiotic resistances differed. Digestion of cellular DNA with SmaI showed that two isolates from a single patient had a markedly different pattern to the remainder, and that six others differed by one band, though these formed groups of one and five isolates. This episode apparently represents a small outbreak of colonization or infection, which would have been missed but for the unusual pigmentation of the isolates recovered, and illustrates the difficulties of relying on a single typing system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial Diseases, St John's Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Noble
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Howell
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001434:Bacteriophage Typing; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D016712:Mupirocin; D010858:Pigmentation; D011815:R Factors; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D016712:Mupirocin