Detection and Characterization of Heterogeneous Vancomycin-Intermediate Staphylococcus aureus Isolates in Canada: Results from the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, 1995-2006

We describe the epidemiology of heterogeneously resistant Staphylococcus aureus (hVISA) identified in Canadian hospitals between 1995 and 2006. hVISA isolates were confirmed by the population analysis profiling-area under the curve method. Only 25 hVISA isolates (1.3% of all isolates) were detected. hVISA isolates were more likely to have been health care associated (odds ratio [OR], 5.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9 to 14.2) and to have been recovered from patients hospitalized in central Canada (OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.2 to 7.4). There has been no evidence of vancomycin MIC creep in Canadian strains of methicillin (meticillin)-resistant S. aureus, and hVISA strains are currently uncommon.