Prevalence of nasal carriage rate for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and its antibiotic susceptibility profiles in health care workers at Nanakaly Hospital, Erbil, Iraq

Abstract

Background and objective: Healthcare workers have been identified as the source of infection in many outbreaks of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the hospital environment. Therefore, we aimed to demonstrate the prevalence of nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusand their antibiotic resistance patterns among healthcare workers.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on a total of 94 healthcare workers at Nanakaly hospital. Nasal swabs were collected and cultured on Mannitol Salt Agar. Staphylococcus aureus was identified by Gram's stain, catalase test, and coagulase test. Staphylococcus aureus isolates were confirmed as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus using cefoxitin (30 μg) disc diffusion test. Antibiotic susceptibility was performed according to the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.Results: A total of 23 (24.5%) healthcare workers were nasal carrier for Staphylococcus aureus, and the overall methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage rate was 8.5%. There was no statistically significant difference between the gender (P = 0.29), age (P = 0.29), and occupations (P = 0.721) and the nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. All isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus were sensitive for linezolid and mupirocin. The highest resistance rate for both erythromycin and clindamycin (75%) was noted among the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusstrains, while the highest resistance rate in methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus strains was penicillin (72.5%), erythromycin (20%) and ciprofloxacin (13.3%).Conclusion: Healthcare workers were the potential colonizers of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. So regular screening of the healthcare workers is one of the effective methods to reduce and control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in any health care facility and applying the appropriate preventive measures will prevent transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusto other contact patients.