PVL-positive MRSA in Austria.

The objective of this study was to present, for the first time, an overview of the existing Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains in Austria and to compare the situation with that found in other countries. Between 2001 and 2006 we analysed 1150 MRSA isolates - from infections as well as from colonisation - for the presence of PVL genes. The most common multilocus sequence types of the 94 PVL-positive MRSA strains were ST8, ST152, ST30, ST80, and ST5; the ST22, and ST777 sequences were also detected. During 2005 and 2006, 3.7-7.7% of the isolates were PVL-positive. The age distribution of the patients revealed that nosocomial MRSA mainly occurs in elderly people, whereas PVL-positive MRSA mainly appears in younger people. We observed a relatively high prevalence of PVL-positive isolates. Several MRSA clones containing the PVL genes are spreading throughout Austria, including two strains not yet widespread in Western Europe.