Fatal case due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus small colony variants in an AIDS patient.

We describe the first known case of a fatal infection with small colony variants of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a patient with AIDS. Recovered from three blood cultures as well as from a deep hip abscess, these variants may have resulted from long-term antimicrobial therapy with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole for prophylaxis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.