Introduction:

Staphylococcus aureusis considered one of the most critical human pathogens worldwide, and its levels of methicillin resistance have increased even in strains isolated from people without nosocomial risk factors. Therefore the genetic typing of circulating clones is essential to understand dissemination patterns.

Objective:

Obtain the MRSA typing that caused invasive infections in children by using the automated multi-locus variable number of tandem repeats (MLVA) analysis technique.

Materials and methods:

Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional.

Results:

25 strains MRSA representing more than 700S. aureusisolates collected in 2010, 2012, and 2013 from 4 national reference hospitals were analyzed. The MLVA automation included the typing of 88% (22/25) isolates, resulting in 3 different profiles, each one associated with a different spa type, being the 1-t019 the predominant (86%), followed by the 3-t002 profile (9%), yielding 100% concordance with the MLVA manual, as well as high concordance with the standard gold method, PFGE.

Conclusions:

The inclusion of an automated fragment analysis method led to the characterization of isolates, improving response time, and maintaining high sensitivity compared to the manual process.

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