Severe infections caused by community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus belonging to complex type CC152
We report severe infections caused by community-acquired methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus CC152 in the Netherlands (2021–2025), predominantly necrotising pneumonia following viral infection. Our observations add to previous sporadic reports and suggest that CC152 may represent an emerging virulent clone in Europe. The invasive isolates carried a wide scala of virulence-associated genes including PVL, edinB and exfolative toxin etE2. As MSSA is rarely prioritised for sequencing, this potentially emerging CC152 lineage may be under-recognised in Europe. Increased clinical awareness and molecular characterisation of fulminant invasive MSSA infections may support detection of cases.