AUTHOR=Asadollahi Parisa , Farahani Narges Nodeh , Mirzaii Mehdi , Khoramrooz Seyed Sajjad , van Belkum Alex , Asadollahi Khairollah , Dadashi Masoud , Darban-Sarokhalil Davood 

TITLE=Distribution of the Most Prevalent Spa Types among Clinical Isolates of Methicillin-Resistant and -Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus around the World: A Review

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.00163

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2018.00163

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold><italic>Staphylococcus aureus</italic>, a leading cause of community-acquired and nosocomial infections, remains a major health problem worldwide. Molecular typing methods, such as <italic>spa</italic> typing, are vital for the control and, when typing can be made more timely, prevention of <italic>S. aureus</italic> spread around healthcare settings. The current study aims to review the literature to report the most common clinical <italic>spa</italic> types around the world, which is important for epidemiological surveys and nosocomial infection control policies.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> A search via PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane library, and Scopus was conducted for original articles reporting the most prevalent <italic>spa</italic> types among <italic>S. aureus</italic> isolates. The search terms were “<italic>Staphylococcus aureus, spa typing</italic>.”</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> The most prevalent <italic>spa</italic> types were t032, t008 and t002 in Europe; t037 and t002 in Asia; t008, t002, and t242 in America; t037, t084, and t064 in Africa; and t020 in Australia. In Europe, all the isolates related to <italic>spa</italic> type t032 were MRSA. In addition, <italic>spa</italic> type t037 in Africa and t037and t437 in Australia also consisted exclusively of MRSA isolates. Given the fact that more than 95% of the papers we studied originated in the past decade there was no option to study the dynamics of regional clone emergence.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> This review documents the presence of the most prevalent <italic>spa</italic> types in countries, continents and worldwide and shows big local differences in clonal distribution.</p>