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Abstract
Background: This study was conducted to investigate the clinical features of hospital-associated infections (HAIs) caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Chinese children, and the molecular characteristics of the bacteria. Methods: Patients with HAIs caused by MRSA were identified retrospectively. All isolates were analyzed using molecular typing and antimicrobial susceptibility tests. Results: In total, 150 patients were identified, with a median age of 18 months. The most common infection was pneumonia (55.3%), followed by skin and soft tissue infections (46%). Invasive infections were observed in 52 patients (34.7%), and their hospital stay was longer compared with non-invasive cases (21 vs 12 days, p = 0.047). A total of 16 sequence types (STs) were identified. ST239 and ST59 were common clones, accounting for 46% and 28% of cases, respectively. Compared with cases caused by ST239-SCCmecI-III, patients infected by ST59-SCCmecIV-V had a lower median age (11 vs 41 months, p = 0.047) and more commonly developed invasive infection (50% vs 18.8%, p = 0.006). Conclusions: Invasive infections accounted for a large proportion of HAIs caused by MRSA. ST59-SCCmecIV/V, a common clone in the community, caused HAIs in Chinese children, more often infected younger children and caused invasive infections.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Professor Teruyo Ito of Juntendo University, Japan, for the reference MRSA strains used as the control for SCCmec typing. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant no. 81171648] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme [no. 81061160509].
Declaration of interest: All the authors listed have read through the manuscript and approved it for publication, and declare no conflicts of interest.