Toxin gene profiling of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) isolated from a Malaysian teaching hospital

Entero- and exfoliative toxin gene profiling of 237 methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) isolated from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) were carried out via PCR amplification. Among the tested toxin genes, sei was found to be the most prevalent (54.9%)

Species identification of Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CoNS) isolates in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC)

Coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) are common colonizers of the human skin but has become increasingly recognized as agents of clinically significant infections. At the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC), the prevalence of CoNS among staphylococcus genus in 2009 was 47.1%. The aim of this study was to identify Staphylococcus epidermidis, S. saprophyticus and S. xylosus from the CoNS and MRCoNS (methicillin resistant CoNS) collected in 2009 using a multiplex PCR approach with primers specific for each species. Our results showed that S. epidermidis is the most common species among both MRCoNS and CoNS isolates in UKMMC. Among 1142 CoNS strains, 68.4% were S. epidermidis, 1.3% were S. saprophyticus while 30.3% were non-typeable (other species). A total of 659 CoNS strains have been identified as methicillin resistant (MRCoNS); where 68.1% were S. epidermidis,1.5% was S. saprophyticus and 30.3% were from other CoNS species. S. xylosus was not identified among the isolates

Virulence gene typing of Methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA)isolates in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC)

We determined the presence of four virulence genes: (cna, seh, PVL, TSST-1) using multiplex PCR in 880 isolates of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) collected from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) in 2009. We found that 51.59% (454/880) of the strains had cna; 21.82% (192/880) possessed seh; 10.23% (90/880) had PVL and 6.82% (60/880) haboured TSST-1. Although methicillin-susceptible, MSSA carries important virulence genes which could affect patient’s clinical course