Department of Microbiology, Saraswathi Institute of Medical Sciences, Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Online published on 25 March, 2015.
The aim of the study was to determine the antibiogram of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from anterior nares of health-care workers in our institute.
The study was conducted on 248 health-care workers. The specimen was obtained by rotating the sterile cotton swabs gently for five times on both anterior nares and immediately transported to the laboratory. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated by conventional culture methods and identified by conventional biochemical methods. Methicillin resistance and antibiotic susceptibility pattern in Staphylococcus aureus isolates were determined by Kirby-Bauer's disc diffusion method according to CLSI guidelines.
A total of 223 (89.92%) staphylococcus aureus strains were isolated from 248 health-care workers. In our study, nasal carriage rate of MRSA was found to be 22.17% and MSSA to be 67.74%. All staphylococcus aureus strains were susceptible to glycopeptide antibiotics and linezolid. Six (3.57%) MSSA strains were found to be susceptible to penicillin.
The present study indicates a moderately high nasal carriage rate (22.17%) of MRSA. Health-care workers in the hospital should be regularly screened for nasal carriage of MRSA as it increases the chances of transmission of the organism to the patients during patient care.
MRSA, MSSA, anterior nares, cefoxitin, health-care worker, glycopeptides
