To the Editor: Community strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are increasingly seen in Australia, particularly in certain population subgroups, such as Pacific Islander1 and Aboriginal2 people. We report the case of an African with community MRSA to highlight its existence in yet another subgroup. Given the increase in people arriving in Australia from Africa under the Humanitarian Program (with around 8500 arrivals from Africa in 2004–2005)3 and their wide dispersal around the country, it is possible that African community MRSA will be seen increasingly in Australia.
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We thank Joanne Mercer, Thelma Barbagiannakos, Robert Porritt and Yvonne Kwok (South Western Area Pathology Service, Liverpool, NSW) for performing pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and polymerase chain reaction testing for mecA and virulence genes; Flavia Huygens, Phil Giffard and Alex Stephens (Cooperative Research Centre for Diagnostics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD) for performing multilocus sequence and SCCmec typing; and Mitchell Smith (Refugee Health Service, Sydney South West Area Health Service — Western Zone, NSW) for supplying data about refugees.