Carriage of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus among Students and other Health Care Providers in a Rural Teaching Medical Institution

An estimated 80% of staphylococcal infections are of endogenous origin caused by the colonizing strain itself. Physical contact with infected or colonized patients is an important risk factor for MRSA acquisition. Health care providers are being constantly exposed to patients with MRSA infection and over time may become colonized with the same. Thus, the present study was aimed at determining the carriage rates of Staph. aureus and MRSA strains among health care providers and students of our institute and to determine their antibiotic sensitivity patterns to determine the best possible antibiotics against them. 100 samples were collected from students, faculties and other healthcare workers without having any active disease and not under antibiotic therapy. Among 59% culture positive samples, gram positive cocci were isolated in 83% cases, of which 33.9% were Staph aureus. The overall carriage rate of Staph. aureus was 20%, while that of MRSA was 6%, Antibiotic susceptibility test performed in our study showed MRSA strains to be more resistant to most antibiotics, than MSSA strains. One MRSA strain was also resistant to Mupirocin which is commonly recommended drug for decolonization of nasal carriers. Thus, continuous surveillance should be made to accurately assess the prevalence, geographical distribution and epidemiology of MRSA strains/infection and take timely measures to prevent colonization and spread of this bacterium.