International Journal of Advances In Case Reports

SCREENING OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS AS NASAL CARRIER FROM HOSPITAL PERSONNEL

J Thulunga1, A Bhattarai1, S Basnyat1, SK Singh2, A Singh1, KR Rijal1*

rijalkomal@yahoo.com

S. aureus, MDR, MRSA, Nasal carrier,

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common human pathogen and is capable of causing wide range of infections in human. The present study was conducted from June 2007 to December 2007 to screen out S. aureus as nasal carrier from hospital personnel of Shree Birendra Hospital Chhauni. A total of 264 nasal swab samples were collected from hospital personnel of different wards and subjected to culture on Mannitol Salt Agar and suspected isolates were identified as S. aureus by standard microbiological methods and antibiotic susceptibility test of the isolated S. aureus was done by Modified Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Among 65 isolates of S. aureus from nasal swabs; 27.02% (47/174) isolates were from males and 20% (18/90) were from females. The distribution of S. aureus as a nasal carrier between male and female was not statistically significant (P = 0.21). In both male and female, the highest prevalence (31.66%) of nasal carrier of S. aureus was found in the age group of 26-30 years. Among hospital personnel, maximum nasal carrier rate was found in nursing assistant 33.87% (21/62) followed by intern doctors 31.82% (7/22) and medical trainee 27.59% (16/58). Regarding the department wise distribution of nasal carrier, highest nasal carrier rate of S. aureus was from Medical III 53.84% (7/13) followed by orthopedic 50% (2/4) and surgical officer cabin 42.85% (6/14). The isolates S. aureus showed highest resistant to amoxicillin (76.9%) followed by penicillin (38.5%), cotrimoxazole (21.5%), gentamycin (13.8%), erythromycin (9.2%), ciprofloxacin (9.2%), chloramphenicol (4.6%) and least towards tetracycline (3.1%). Out of 65, only 20% (n=13) S. aureus isolates were multi-drug resistant (MDR) and highest number of MDR S. aureus was isolated from Intensive Care Unit 75% (n=3). No methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was found among the isolates of S. aureus.