Detection and characterization of heterogeneous vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus isolates in Canada: results from the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, 1995-2006

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2010 Feb;54(2):945-9. doi: 10.1128/AAC.01316-09. Epub 2009 Nov 30.

Abstract

We describe the epidemiology of heterogeneously resistant Staphylococcus aureus (hVISA) identified in Canadian hospitals between 1995 and 2006. hVISA isolates were confirmed by the population analysis profiling-area under the curve method. Only 25 hVISA isolates (1.3% of all isolates) were detected. hVISA isolates were more likely to have been health care associated (odds ratio [OR], 5.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9 to 14.2) and to have been recovered from patients hospitalized in central Canada (OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.2 to 7.4). There has been no evidence of vancomycin "MIC creep" in Canadian strains of methicillin (meticillin)-resistant S. aureus, and hVISA strains are currently uncommon.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Canada / epidemiology
  • Cross Infection / drug therapy*
  • Cross Infection / microbiology
  • Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial
  • Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / drug effects*
  • Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / physiology
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Staphylococcal Infections / drug therapy*
  • Staphylococcal Infections / epidemiology
  • Vancomycin / therapeutic use*
  • Vancomycin Resistance / genetics*

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Vancomycin