Changes in the Genotypic Characteristics of Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Collected in 244 Medical Facilities in Japan between 2010 and 2018: a Nationwide Surveillance
Tetsuo Yamaguchi, Itaru Nakamura, Takahiro Sato, Daisuke Ono, Ayami Sato, Shiro Sonoda, Kotaro Aoki, Yuri Miura, Shinobu Koyama, Kiyoko Tamai, Tetsuya Matsumoto, Junzo Hisatsune, Motoyuki Sugai, Yoshikazu Ishii, Kazuhiro Tateda
Abstract
Community-associated MRSA, which is a multidrug-resistant organism and can cause infections in otherwise-healthy individuals, has become a global problem. This paper describes a nationwide surveillance conducted in Japan to investigate changes in molecular epidemiological characteristics of CA-MRSA over the past decade and provides a detailed review of the characteristics of Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL)-positive strains isolated in 2018. Although CA-MRSA is rare in Japan to date, we found that the isolation of PVL-positive strains has been increasing over the past decade. In particular, the PVL-positive strains wherein CC8 was dominant exhibited high interstrain similarity, suggesting that a limited number of clones have spread over the past decade. Furthermore, a unique ST22 clone carrying both PVL-encoding and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1-encoding genes has emerged. This study shows that various changes can be observed when molecular epidemiological analysis, combined with next-generation sequencing, is conducted over a long period.