Acute osteomyelitis/septic pulmonary embolism associated with familial infections caused by PVL-positive ST6562 MRSA-IVa, a presumptive variant of USA300 clone

Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) occasionally causes severe invasive infections. A 10-year-old immunocompetent boy in Hokkaido, the northern main island of Japan, was admitted with acute osteomyelitis of the right ilium, complicated by septic thrombophlebitis of the right common iliac vein and septic pulmonary embolism. As MRSA was isolated from blood and sputum samples of the patient, linezolid and vancomycin were initially used for treatment, and later clindamycin was added based on PCR-positive results for PVL genes. During his hospitalization, the patient was complicated by abscesses around the right ilium and septic arthritis of the right hip, which required surgical drainage. Prior to his admission, his youngest sister had developed a right breast abscess, and another sister and his mother developed contagious impetigo and hordeolum, respectively, during his hospitalization. These infections in the patient and his family members were caused by an identical PVL-positive MRSA strain belonging to ST6562, a single-locus variant of ST8. Due to the genetically close characteristics, this ST6562 MRSA was considered a genetic variant of the USA300 CA-MRSA clone (ST8-MRSA-IVa) predominating in the United States. The ST6562 MRSA-IVa is suggested to have occurred in Japan, associated with potential spread of the USA300 clone.