PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

MRSA Causing Infections in Hospitals in Greater Metropolitan New York: Major Shift in the Dominant Clonal Type between 1996 and 2014.

  • Maria Pardos de la Gandara,
  • Marie Curry,
  • Judith Berger,
  • David Burstein,
  • Phyllis Della-Latta,
  • Virgina Kopetz,
  • John Quale,
  • Eric Spitzer,
  • Rexie Tan,
  • Carl Urban,
  • Guiqing Wang,
  • Susan Whittier,
  • Herminia de Lencastre,
  • Alexander Tomasz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156924
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 6
p. e0156924

Abstract

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A surveillance study in 1996 identified the USA100 clone (ST5/SCCmecII)-also known as the "New York/Japan" clone-as the most prevalent MRSA causing infections in 12 New York City hospitals. Here we update the epidemiology of MRSA in seven of the same hospitals eighteen years later in 2013/14. Most of the current MRSA isolates (78 of 121) belonged to the MRSA clone USA300 (CC8/SCCmecIV) but the USA100 clone-dominant in the 1996 survey-still remained the second most frequent MRSA (25 of the 121 isolates) causing 32% of blood stream infections. The USA300 clone was most common in skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) and was associated with 84.5% of SSTIs compared to 5% caused by the USA100 clone. Our data indicate that by 2013/14, the USA300 clone replaced the New York/Japan clone as the most frequent cause of MRSA infections in hospitals in Metropolitan New York. In parallel with this shift in the clonal type of MRSA, there was also a striking change in the types of MRSA infections from 1996 to 2014.