Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun 19;5(6):acmi000491.v3.
doi: 10.1099/acmi.0.000491.v3. eCollection 2023.

Trends in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), England, 2010-2021

Karthik Paranthaman  1 , Allegra Wilson  1 , Neville Verlander  1 , Graeme Rooney  1 , Neil Macdonald  1 , Olisaeloka Nsonwu  1 , Russell Hope  1 , Paul Fleming  2   3 , James Hatcher  4 , Enitan Ogundipe  5   6 , Natasha Ratnaraja  7 , Yu Wan  1   8 , Bruno Pichon  1 , Samantha J Westrop  1 , Colin S Brown  1   8 , Alicia Demirjian  1   9   10
Affiliations

Trends in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), England, 2010-2021

Karthik Paranthaman et al. Access Microbiol. .

Abstract

Objective: To review the epidemiology of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) in England over the recent 12 year period.

Methods: Laboratory-confirmed CoNS reported from sterile sites in patients in England to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) between 2010 and 2021 were extracted from the national laboratory database and analysed.

Results: Overall, 668 857 episodes of CoNS were reported. Unspeciated CoNS accounted for 56 % (374 228) of episodes, followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (26 %; 174 050), S. hominis (6.5 %; 43 501) and S. capitis (3.9 %; 25 773). Unspeciated CoNS increased by 8.2 % (95 % CI, 7.1-9.3) annually between 2010 and 2016, then decreased annually by 6.4 % (95 % CI: -4.8 to -7.9) until 2021. Speciated CoNS increased by 47.6 % (95 % CI, 44.5-50.9) annually between 2010 and 2016 and increased annually by 8.9 % (95 % CI: 5.1 to 12.8) until 2021. Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles differed by species.

Conclusions: Reports of CoNS from normally sterile body sites in patients in England increased between 2010 and 2016 and remained stable between 2017 and 2021. There has been a striking improvement in species-level identification of CoNS in recent years. Monitoring trends in CoNS epidemiology is crucial for development of observational and clinical intervention studies on individual species.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance; coagulase-negative staphylococci; epidemiology; species distribution.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no conflicts of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Annual counts and contribution of common CoNS species in sterile sites, England, 2015–2021.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Counts and trend analysis of CoNS species in sterile sites, England, 2010–2021.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Age distribution of patients with CoNS species in sterile sites, England, 2010–2021.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Annual incidence rate of common CoNS species by age group, England, 2010–2021.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
Trends in antimicrobial susceptibility for nine antimicrobials for CoNS in sterile sites, England, 2010–2021.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Becker K, Heilmann C, Peters G. Coagulase-negative staphylococci. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2014;27:870–926. doi: 10.1128/CMR.00109-13. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker K, Both A, Weißelberg S, Heilmann C, Rohde H. Emergence of coagulase-negative staphylococci. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2020;18:349–366. doi: 10.1080/14787210.2020.1730813. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heilmann C, Ziebuhr W, Becker K. Are coagulase-negative staphylococci virulent? Clin Microbiol Infect. 2019;25:1071–1080. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2018.11.012. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Michels R, Last K, Becker SL, Papan C. Update on coagulase-negative staphylococci-What the clinician should know. Microorganisms. 2021;9:830. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9040830. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grice EA, Segre JA. The skin microbiome. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2011;9:244–253. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro2537. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources