MRSA Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about MRSA, including details on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, hospitals, infection, antibiotic resistance, superbugs.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus producing Panton-Valentine leukocidin as a cause of acute osteomyelitis in children.

Sdougkos G, Chini V, Papanastasiou DA, Christodoulou G, Tagaris G, Dimitracopoulos G, Spiliopoulou I

Department of Orthopaedics, Karamandaneion Children's Hospital, Patras, Greece.

Staphylococcus aureus was identified as the cause of acute childhood osteomyelitis in 19 patients. A single clone of community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) carrying the type IV mecA staphylococcal cassette chromosome and the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) genes was isolated from five patients. Among the remaining 14 patients, two methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) isolates were PVL-positive. The maximal erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein values, and the time required for normalisation, were significantly different in patients with PVL-positive strains (MRSA and MSSA), suggesting that the production of PVL is an important factor that contributes to the course of the disease.

Published 10 May 2007 in Clin Microbiol Infect, 13(6): 651-4.
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