among Patients and Healthcare Workers in a Serbian University Hospital

(MRSA) epidemiology among Balkan countries. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of nasal and pharyngeal carriages and diversity of MRSA among patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) in the major referral centre in Serbia, and to evaluate performance of three different media for MRSA screening. typing, PVL genes detection and antimicrobial susceptibility.I was the dominant clone among patients and HCWs in ED and MD, while high genetic diversity of community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) was shown in SD especially among HCWs. MRSA-ID was superior to the other tested media with a sensitivity/specificity of 95.2% and 99.6% after 48 hours of incubation.These results indicate high MRSA carriage rate in the hospital and emergence of CA-MRSA through HCWs in these settings. MRSA-ID was the optimal available choice for MRSA screening