Distribution of the Most Prevalent Spa Types among Clinical Isolates of Methicillin-Resistant and -Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus around the World: A Review

<b>Background:</b><i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>, a leading cause of community-acquired and nosocomial infections, remains a major health problem worldwide. Molecular typing methods, such as <i>spa</i> typing, are vital for the control and, when typing can be made more timely, prevention of <i>S. aureus</i> spread around healthcare settings. The current study aims to review the literature to report the most common clinical <i>spa</i> types around the world, which is important for epidemiological surveys and nosocomial infection control policies. <b>Methods:</b> A search via PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane library, and Scopus was conducted for original articles reporting the most prevalent <i>spa</i> types among <i>S. aureus</i> isolates. The search terms were "<i>Staphylococcus aureus, spa typing</i>." <b>Results:</b> The most prevalent <i>spa</i> types were t032, t008 and t002 in Europe; t037 and t002 in Asia; t008, t002, and t242 in America; t037, t084, and t064 in Africa; and t020 in Australia. In Europe, all the isolates related to <i>spa</i> type t032 were MRSA. In addition, <i>spa</i> type t037 in Africa and t037and t437 in Australia also consisted exclusively of MRSA isolates. Given the fact that more than 95% of the papers we studied originated in the past decade there was no option to study the dynamics of regional clone emergence. <b>Conclusion:</b> This review documents the presence of the most prevalent <i>spa</i> types in countries, continents and worldwide and shows big local differences in clonal distribution.