Abstract
Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the leading causes of hospital-associated infections. This study investigated the potential use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for surveillance purposes by re-examining MRSA strains related to past outbreaks among hospitalized paediatric patients. WGS data ameliorated the genotypic profile previously obtained with Sanger sequencing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing, and discriminated between strains that were related and unrelated to the outbreaks. This allowed strain clonality to be defined with a higher level of resolution than achieved previously. This study demonstrates the potential of WGS to trace hospital outbreaks, which may lead to WGS becoming standard practice in outbreak investigations.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 375-81 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Hospital Infection |
Volume | 93 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Aug 2016 |
Keywords
- Cross Infection
- Disease Outbreaks
- Disease Transmission, Infectious
- Genome, Bacterial
- Hospitals, Pediatric
- Humans
- Infant
- Infant, Newborn
- Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
- Molecular Epidemiology
- Molecular Typing
- Sequence Analysis, DNA
- Staphylococcal Infections
- Evaluation Studies
- Journal Article