Objective: During a period of 6 months three severe cases of PVL-related Staphylococcus aureus (SA) pneumonia in children was treated at the pediatric department, Halmstad county hospital in the south west of Sweden. The hospital serves a county with 290 000 inhabitants and this unexpectedly high incidence prompted us to investigate the prevalence of PVL-positive SA among children.
Methods: Consecutive clinical isolates of SA from children 0-19 years of age were collected and investigated for presences of the PVL-gene. Positive isolates were spa-typed. Furthermore, SA-isolates were collected from anterior nares and throats of children attending as outpatients to the pediatric department. Samples were investigated for presence of PVL-gene and positive isolates were spa-typed. Clonal relationship between PVL-positive clinical (including isolates from the three cases of PVL-related pneumonia) and colonizing isolates were analysed using the BURP algorithm.
Results and discussion: Preliminary data shows that 7 % (16/217) of the consecutive clinical isolates were positive for the PVL-gene. A statistically significant association between abscess-formation and PVL-positivity was observed. Clonal analysis by spa-typing and BURP-analysis of the 16 PVL-positive clinical isolates revealed 11 unrelated spa-types. The three isolates from patients with SA pneumonia represented three unrelated spa-types (t186, t1211 and t044). spa-type t1211 and a spa-type closely related to t186 (t3183) was also present among the consecutive clinical isolates.
The isolates from the anterior nares and throats of children attending as outpatients are now analysed.