[Incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in community-onset paediatric skin infections: a retrospective study 2000-2005].

BACKGROUND: A dramatic increase in the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in community-onset skin infections has been reported over the last 10 years in the USA. The emergence of MRSA has been recently described in France. The aims of this study were to assess the incidence of MRSA in community-onset skin infections and to analyse the characteristics of MRSA skin infections in a French paediatric population.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study covering the period January 2000 to December 2005. Patients aged under 15 years with S. aureus isolated from skin and a clinical diagnosis of skin infection were included.

RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-four children were included with a median age of 3.4 years. There were no significant differences in MRSA prevalence between the different years of the study. The overall prevalence of MRSA was 8.2% (n=11/134). None of the isolated strains presented an antimicrobial susceptibility profile suggestive of the ST80-type community-acquired MRSA described in France. Three MRSA strains were isolated from serious superantigen-mediated skin infections. The antimicrobial susceptibility and genetic profile (tst-positive agr2 MSRA) for one strain of S. aureus militated strongly in favour of an MRSA ST5 clone skin infection.

CONCLUSION: In this study we found no evidence of epidemic spread of MRSA in community-onset childhood skin infections between 2000-2005. Nevertheless, we report three cases of serious MRSA-induced superantigen-associated skin infection. This argues in favour of the presence of virulent community MRSA clones in France.