The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 16, Issue 2 117-127, Copyright © 1983 by Society for General Microbiology
Gentamicin and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Dublin hospitals: clinical and laboratory studies
M. T. Cafferkey, R. Hone, F. R. Falkiner, C. T. Keane and H. Pomeroy
Strains of Staphylococcus aureus resistant to gentamicin and methicillin
first appeared in Dublin hospitals in 1976, and rapidly became widely
disseminated. The number of patients infected or colonised increased
throughout the period of study, especially in 1979 and 1980. Most isolates
were from burns, surgical wounds and traumatic skin lesions. During the 12
months after first isolation of these multiply antibiotic resistant
strains, colonisation or minor infection was the usual event. Invasive
infection such as bacteraemia, deep wound sepsis and osteomyelitis was
rarely seen. Subsequently, as the number of patients from whom these
organisms were isolated increased, bacteraemia and other severe infection
became more common. The predominant phage type of S. aureus changed with
the progression of the outbreak. Isolates of different phage type were
sometimes found in a single lesion, or in different sites in one patient.
By the second half of 1980, most isolates were untypable or typed only with
an experimental phage.
