Diversity and Dissemination of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Genotypes in Southeast Asia

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a successful pathogen that has achieved global dissemination, with high prevalence rates in Southeast Asia. A huge diversity of clones has been reported in this region, with MRSA ST239 being the most successful lineage. Nonetheless, description of MRSA genotypes circulating in the Southeast Asia region has, until now, remained poorly compiled. In this review, we aim to provide a better understanding of the molecular epidemiology and distribution of MRSA clones in 11 Southeast Asian countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, and Timor-Leste. Notably, while archaic multidrug-resistant hospital-associated (HA) MRSAs, such as the ST239-III and ST241-III, were prominent in the region during earlier observations, these were then largely replaced by the more antibiotic-susceptible community-acquired (CA) MRSAs, such as ST22-IV and PVL-positive ST30-IV, in recent years after the turn of the century. Nonetheless, reports of livestock-associated (LA) MRSAs remain few in the region.