%0 Journal Article %A Shittu, Adebayo %A Nübel, Ulrich %A Udo, Edet %A Lin, Johnson %A Gaogakwe, Sedio %T Characterization of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal province, Republic of South Africa %D 2009 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 58 %N 9 %P 1219-1226 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.011452-0 %K MLST, multilocus sequence typing %K CA, community-associated %K MRSA, meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus %K PVL, Panton–Valentine leukocidin %K KZN, KwaZulu-Natal %I Microbiology Society, %X Epidemiological data based on phenotypic and molecular characterization of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in sub-Saharan Africa are limited. This investigation studied 61 MRSA isolates obtained from 13 health-care institutions in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, South Africa, from March 2001 to August 2003. More than 80 % of the isolates were resistant to at least four classes of antibiotics and six isolates were resistant to the aminoglycoside, macrolide-lincosamide and tetracycline groups of antibiotics, heavy metals and nucleic acid-binding compounds. PFGE of SmaI-digested genomic DNA revealed seven types, designated A–G. Type A was the main pulsotype (62.3 %) and was identified in 11 of the 13 health-care institutions, suggesting that it represented a major clone in health-care institutions in KZN province. Analysis of representative members of the three major pulsotypes by spa, multilocus sequence typing and SCCmec typing revealed the types t064-ST1173-SCCmec IV and t064-ST1338-SCCmec IV (PFGE type A, single-locus and double-locus variants of ST8), t037-ST239-SCCmec III (PFGE type F) and t045-ST5-SCCmec III (PFGE type G). The combination of various typing methods provided useful information on the geographical dissemination of MRSA clones in health-care institutions in KZN province. The observation of major clones circulating in health-care facilities in KZN province indicates that adequate infection control measures are urgently needed. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.011452-0