Prevalence and risk factors for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage among emergency department workers and bacterial contamination on touch surfaces in Erciyes University Hospital, Kayseri, Turkey

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) nasal carriage among emergency department (ED) workers, and bacterial contamination on hand-touch surfaces at ED.Methods: This single-centered study enrolled 105 ED workers and 190 hand-touch surfaces at ED in June 2014. Nasal and environmental samples for S. aureus carriage and for bacterial contamination were obtained. For isolation swabs were cultured on ChromAgar S. aureus and environmental samples first cultured in broth and antibiogram obtained by clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. A questionnaire was completed for each subject.Results: The S. aureus carriage rate was 18.1% (n=19), with 2.9% (n=3) MRSA positivity. There were two (1.9%) mobile phone positivities for S. aureus, one of them was MRSA, and a computer keyboard contamination for MRSA was also detected. All MRSA isolates were susceptible for the tested antibiotics. There was significant difference between gender (p=0.044) in terms of nasal carriage of S. aureus and MRSA, all three MRSA isolates were from females.Conclusion: Our study showed that the carriage of MRSA was not affected by clinical exposure in the hospital because of the existing infection control policy in our hospital.Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus, carriage, risk factors, health care workers, bacterial contamination