Nationwide trends in molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Finland, 1997–2004

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 2 Background information on patients and staff members who tested positive for the ten most common epidemic MRSA strains, 2001–2003. The response rate of the survey was 97% (1707/1768).

MRSA strain	Number of patients (n = 1598)					Number of staff members (n = 109)				Total no. of isolates
	Sequence type (ST) and SCCmec type	Clinical specimen	^aScreening specimen; exposure to MRSA	^bScreening specimen; hospital contact abroad	Other reason for taking the sample	Clinical specimens	^cScreening specimen; epidemic situation	^dScreening specimen; hospital contact abroad	Other reason for taking the sample
FIN-16	ST125:IA	197	131	5	18	2	3	1	2	359
FIN-7	ST8:IV	70	159	1	6	-	28	-	-	264
FIN-4	ST375:IV	163	56	5	12	4	8	-	-	248
FIN-10	ST45:IV, V	87	129	2	6	2	12	-	-	238
FIN-21	ST228:I	58	82	1	3	-	1	-	-	145
FIN-3	ST5:II	22	30	8	7	-	4	-	-	71
FIN-15	ST8:IV	34	19	-	5	-	9	-	1	68
FIN-12	ST22:IV	19	12	8	4	-	1	14	-	58
FIN-6	ST36:II	5	1	5	-	-	1	1	-	13
^eFIN-2	ST241:IIIB	7	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	9
Other strains		79	49	8	2	3	5	2	2	150
Sporadic		52	22	19	2	1	1	1	-	98
Total		793	690	64	65	12	73	19	5	^f1721

^aScreening specimens of MRSA increased from 36% (96/265) in 2001 to 45% (364/816) in 2003.
^bHospitalized or undergone a surgical procedure outside the Nordic countries within 6 months
^cScreening specimens of MRSA increased from 46% (12/26) in 2001 to 82% (36/44) in 2002, but decreased to 64% (25/39) in 2003.
^dWorked outside the Nordic countries within 6 months
^eThis represents only FIN-2e subtype.
^fThe total number of strains (1721) exceeds the number of MRSA-positive persons (1707) by 14, because in some cases more than one reason for sampling was chosen in the questionnaire.

ISSN: 1471-2334