title: Emergence in Asian countries of Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin.
abstract: To investigate the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin among methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains in Asian countries, a total of 1,357 clinical isolates of MRSA collected from 12 Asian countries were screened by using brain heart infusion agar plates containing 4 mg of vancomycin per liter. The presence of strains that were heterointermediately resistant to vancomycin (hVISA) was confirmed by population analysis. Of 347 (25.6%) MRSA isolates that grew on the screening agar plates, 58 isolates (4.3%) were hVISA. hVISA strains were found in India, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, neither vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus nor vancomycin-resistant S. aureus isolates were found among MRSA isolates from Asian countries in this survey.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea. jhsong@smc.samsung.co.kr
authors.forename: Jae-Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiramatsu
authors.forename: Ji Yoeun
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Kwan Soo
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Teruyo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kapi
authors.forename: Sungmin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiem
authors.forename: Yeon-Sook
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Won Sup
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Kyong Ran
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Peck
authors.forename: Nam Yong
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia / Q000453:epidemiology; D016106:Methicillin Resistance; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011153:Population; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects*; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance