Epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus infections and the prevalence of infection caused by community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in hospitalized patients at Siriraj Hospital.
BACKGROUND
The CA-MRSA infections have emerged in many parts of the world over the past decade. To our knowledge, the prevalence of CA-MRSA infections in Thai patients is unknown.


OBJECTIVE
To determine an epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections in hospitalized patients in Siriraj Hospital and the prevalence of infections caused by community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA).


METHODS
The study was carried out at Siriraj Hospital from January to May 2005. The eligible patients were hospitalized patients whom S. aureus were isolated from their clinical specimens submitted to Department of Microbiology. S. aureus isolate was classified into infection or colonization. S. aureus infections were further classified into methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) or methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) infections, and hospital-acquired (HA) or community-acquired (CA) infections. CA-MRSA infection is defined as infection caused by MRSA isolated from the patient within 72-hour of hospitalization and has no features of HA MRSA infections.


RESULTS
There were 669 S. aureus isolates from 448 patients. Two hundred and sixty two patients (58.5%) were MSSA whereas 186 (41.5%) were MRSA infections. CA-MRSA was found in three isolates (0.9% of total MRSA) from two patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of CA-MRSA infections in hospitalized patients in Siriraj Hospital was uncommon and these patients could probably be HA MRSA infections.
Mekviwattanawong
Sripetcharat
S
Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Srifuengfung
Somporn
S
Chokepaibulkit
Kulkanya
K
Lohsiriwat
Darin
D
Thamlikitkul
Visanu
V
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016106:Methicillin Resistance; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome