Phage typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

448 isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from clinical specimens of patients from the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, were phage-typed. These included 35 strains causing two separate outbreaks of infection, one in surgical Ward 6B and another in the Special Care Nursery (SCN). Antibiograms of these outbreak strains in Ward 6B and SCN were entirely different. Phage-typing revealed that 72% of the MRSA isolates were typable. They were typed entirely by Group III phages, the majority (76%) of which were phage type 85. There was only one isolate in SCN which was typed by Group I (phage 80) and Group III phages. None were typed by phages 94, 95, 96 and Group II phages. 14.6% of the typable isolates gave the long pattern reaction of the phage 6/47/54/75/77/83A/84/85 complex. The majority of the outbreak strains in Ward 6B were of phage type 85, whereas those in the SCN were all of the 6/47/54/75/77/83A/84 phage pattern with the exception of one isolate which was also typed by phage 80, a Group I phage.