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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2005, p. 3203-3207, Vol. 43, No. 7
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.7.3203-3207.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Frequent Carriage of Panton-Valentine Leucocidin Genes by Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from Surgically Drained Abscesses

Department of Internal Medicine and Infectious and Tropical Diseases, C.H.T Gaston Bourret, Nouméa, Nouvelle Calédonie, France,¹ National Reference Centre for Staphylococci, INSERM E0230, IFR62, Lyon, France,² Pasteur Institute de Nouvelle Calédonie, Nouméa, Nouvelle Calédonie, France,³ Department of General Surgery, C.H.T Gaston Bourret, Nouméa, Nouvelle Calédonie, France⁴

Received 21 December 2004/ Returned for modification 3 February 2005/ Accepted 21 March 2005

Between 1 February and 15 April 2002, 95 patients were admitted to Gaston Bourret Territorial Hospital (New Caledonia, France) for drainage of community-acquired soft tissue abscesses. Staphylococcus aureus was detected in 68 cases (72%). Two-thirds of the patients with S. aureus infection had furuncles, which were located on the limbs in 82% of cases. The median interval between symptom onset and hospital admission was 5.7 days. Three-quarters of the patients were Melanesians living in tribes. Fifty-four S. aureus isolates were screened for toxin genes. Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL) genes were detected in 48 isolates (89%), the exfoliative toxin A gene was detected in 1 isolate, and no toxin genes were detected in 4 isolates. S. aureus nasal carriage was detected in 39.7% of patients with S. aureus infections. Two infecting S. aureus strains and two nasal carriage strains were resistant to methicillin. Comparative pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, performed in 16 cases, showed that five of six patients with PVL-positive nasal carriage strains were infected by the same strains. In contrast, 8 of 10 patients with PVL-negative nasal carriage strains were infected by PVL-positive strains. PVL genes thus appear to be a major virulence factor in both primary and secondary S. aureus skin infections.

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