Elderly infection in the community due to ST5/SCCmecII methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (the New York/Japan clone) in Japan: Panton–Valentine leukocidin-negative necrotizing pneumonia

An 89-year-old man suffered from and died of necrotizing pneumonia with rapid progression and cavity formation due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). He was at no risk for hospital-acquired MRSA infection. His MRSA exhibited genotype ST5/ spa 2(t002)/ agr 2/SCC mec II/coagulaseII and was negative for Panton–Valentine leukocidin, indicating the New York/Japan clone (the predominant epidemic hospital-acquired MRSA clone in Japan). However, this strain expressed the cytolytic peptide (phenol-soluble modulin or δ-hemolysin) genes at high level, similar to USA300 (the most common community-acquired MRSA in the United States), indicating a variant of the New York/Japan clone with an important feature of community-acquired MRSA.