Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Video Abstracts
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • Pancreatic Cancer (Jul 2025)
    • Complement Biology and Therapeutics (May 2025)
    • Evolving insights into MASLD and MASH pathogenesis and treatment (Apr 2025)
    • Microbiome in Health and Disease (Feb 2025)
    • Substance Use Disorders (Oct 2024)
    • Clonal Hematopoiesis (Oct 2024)
    • Sex Differences in Medicine (Sep 2024)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Clinical Research and Public Health
    • Research Letters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Editorials
    • Commentaries
    • Editor's notes
    • Reviews
    • Viewpoints
    • 100th anniversary
    • Top read articles

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Video Abstracts
  • In-Press Preview
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Research Letters
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Editorials
  • Commentaries
  • Editor's notes
  • Reviews
  • Viewpoints
  • 100th anniversary
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
Reemergence of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the genomics era
Frank R. DeLeo, Henry F. Chambers
Frank R. DeLeo, Henry F. Chambers
Published September 1, 2009
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2009;119(9):2464-2474. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI38226.
View: Text | PDF
Review Series Article has an altmetric score of 9

Reemergence of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the genomics era

  • Text
  • PDF
Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is the leading cause of bacterial infections in developed countries and produces a wide spectrum of diseases, ranging from minor skin infections to fatal necrotizing pneumonia. Although S. aureus infections were historically treatable with common antibiotics, emergence of drug-resistant organisms is now a major concern. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was endemic in hospitals by the late 1960s, but it appeared rapidly and unexpectedly in communities in the 1990s and is now prevalent worldwide. This Review focuses on progress made toward understanding the success of community-associated MRSA as a human pathogen, with an emphasis on genome-wide approaches and virulence determinants.

Authors

Frank R. DeLeo, Henry F. Chambers

×

Figure 1

Emergence of antibiotic-resistant S. aureus, epidemic waves, and estimated deaths caused by MRSA in the United States.

Options: View larger image (or click on image) Download as PowerPoint
Emergence of antibiotic-resistant S. aureus, epidemic waves, and estimat...
(A) Timeline indicates the year in which an event occurred or was reported. Arrows indicate approximate length of time for each pandemic/epidemic. (B) Scanning electron micrograph of strain COL, one of the first MRSA isolates from Colindale, United Kingdom. Original magnification, ×45,000. (C) Comparison of estimated deaths in the United States in 2005 due to individual infectious agents or other causes. Data are CDC estimates from National Vital Statistics Reports (12) and Klevens et al. (11). Deaths associated with MRSA infection are based on the estimated number of in-hospital deaths rather than attributable mortality, whereas data for all other causes of mortality are based on US Standard Certificate of Death. Note also that mortality due to MSSA is not included, and thus estimated mortality associated with all S. aureus infections is not shown.

Copyright © 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts

Referenced in 6 patents
421 readers on Mendeley
1 readers on CiteULike
See more details