ABSTRACT
The purposes of this study were to determine the prevalence of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus [MRSA] strains in Yemen and the extent of their resistance to other antimicrobial agents among health care subjects and non-health care subjects in 2004. This descriptive study included 400 subjects attending some healthy seattings in Sana'a city, Yemen. Nasal samples were taken from individuals and subjected to microbiological examination. The overall isolated rate of nasal carriage S. aureus strain from different subjects was 27% [109/ 400], the prevalence of methicillin resistance among both subjects was 22% [24/109], and the rate of MRSA isolated from health care subjects and non-health care subjects was 29.3% [17/58], and 13.7% [7/51] in that order. Antibiotics resistance was higher for strains from health care subjects compared to non-health care subjects. The resistance rates of MRSA to other antibiotics were as follows; 91.6% resistant to penicillin, 83,3% to amoxicillin-clavulanate, '75% to erythromycin and 66.7% to chloramphinicol. The low resistance rate to clindamycin and gentamicin was recorded in this study. Larger studies are needed to confirm this finding, and the concerted efforts must be focused now to monitor and limit colonizing isolates of MRSA