Abstract
The rise of antibiotic resistance (AMR) is one of the most important public health threats worldwide.Today, increasing attention is being paid to multidrug resistant staphylococci isolated from healthcare and non-healthcare environments as the treatment of these bacteria has become increasingly difficult. In this study, we compared staphylococci isolates recovered from high frequency touched surfaces from public areas in the community and hospitals in East and West London. 281 out of 600 (46.83%) staphylococci isolates recovered were multidrug resistant, of which 49 (8.17%) were mecA positive. There was significantly higher proportion of multidrug resistant staphylococci (P = 0.0002) in East London (56.7%) compared to West London (49.96%). The most common species identified as multidrug resistant were S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus and S. hominis, whereas penicillin, fusidic acid and erythromycin were the most frequent antibiotics the isolates were resistant to. Whole genome sequenced of mecA positive isolates revealed that S. sciuri isolates carried the mecA1 gene, which has only 84.43% homology with mecA. In addition, other frequently identified resistance genes included blaZ, qacA/B and dfrC. We have also identified a diverse range of SCCmec types, many of which were untypable due to carrying a novel combination of ccr genes or multiple ccr complexes.
Highlights
Exemplified by S. aureus, staphylococci are known to cause nosocomial infections[1,2]
A total of 600 staphylococci isolates were recovered from general public settings and hospital public areas in East (n = 224) and West London (n = 376). 182 of 600 isolates were recovered from general public settings and 418 from public areas in hospitals
At species level S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus and S. capitis were prevalent in West London (n = 52; n = 40; n = 13), than in East London (n = 23; n = 21; n = 2), whereas S. aureus was prevalent in East London (n = 3), than in West London (n = 2)
Summary
Exemplified by S. aureus, staphylococci are known to cause nosocomial infections[1,2]. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS) can spread in healthcare and community-associated areas by skin to skin and skin to contaminated surfaces contacts[5,6,7]. Antibiotic resistance genes can be horizontally transferred to different strains and species via mobile elements such as plasmids, bacteriophages and transposons[15]. An example of this is the methicillin resistance gene mecA which is located on a mobile genetic element ‘staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec)’[16]. We report the differences in the proportion of multidrug resistance in CoNS staphylococci and the carriage of the mecA gene in isolates recovered from high-frequency hand touched surfaces of inanimate objects. Whole genome sequenced (WGS) mecA positive isolates revealed new molecular characteristics of these isolates
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