OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical features, drug resistance and molecular epidemiology of patients with skin and soft tissue infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus.

METHODS We analyzed the frequency, drug resistance, molecular typing and virulence gene distribution of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in 128 patients with skin and soft tissue infection caused by S. aureus who admitted to Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital of Wuhan Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology from Oct. 2021 to Nov. 2022.

RESULTS We detected 61 MRSA out of 128 S. aureus strains, which were strongly resistant to penicillin and ciprofloxacin, whereas sensitive to furantoin, minocycline, tigecycline and rifampin. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type Ⅲ and Ⅳ were relatively high, staphylococcal protein A (SPA) type t030 and t309 were most common, ST22 and ST59 of multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) genotype were relatively high. Among the virulence genes carried by MRSA, sea, icaA, clfA and hla were the most frequently detected with the percentage rate of 100.00%.

CONCLUSIONS The detection rate of MRSA in patients with skin and soft tissue infections caused by S. aureus is high, and the resistance of MRSA to commonly used antibiotics is different. The main virulence genes are sea, icaA, clfA and hla, and the common molecular types are Ⅲ, Ⅳ, t030, t309, ST22 and ST59.