Prevalence And Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern Of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus From Healthcare And Community Associated Sources

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important nosocomial pathogen. We report the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of MRSA in Amravati, Maharashtra state (India). A total of 150 healthcare-associated (HA) sources (doctors mobiles phone and wound/pus swabs), and 160 community-associated (CA) sources (hand swab) were screened for MRSA and their antibiotic resistance pattern was performed. Out of 41 isolated strains of S. aureus, 77% from HA and 50% CA samples were found to be methicillin resistant. There were high prevalence of MRSA in doctor's mobile phone (83%) and wound/pus (71%) (HA sources) than the hand swab. Almost all HA and CA MRSA strains were resistant to penicillin and penicillin V (100%) followed by cloxacillin and cephalexin, co-trimoxazole. About 56 - 67% HA and CA-MRSA strains were resistance to erythromycin, ceftazidime, lincomycin, ceftazidime, cephalexin, erythromycin and tetracycline indicating high degree of multi-resistance MRSA prevalence in the region. However, 67% strains of CA and 56% strains of HA were sensitive to vancomycin. The study showed high prevalence of MRSA in hospital setting indicating need of good control measures such as proper hand hygiene, avoiding mobile phone while wound dressing and treating patient, surveillance cultures and monitoring of susceptibility patterns of MRSA may also help in arresting the spread of infections in this part of India. Keywords: MRSA, Wound, Mobile Phone, Hands swab African Journal of Infectious Diseases Vol. 1 (1) 2007: pp. 52-5