Incidence of nasal carriers of staphylococcus aureus in and outside hospital environment and antibiotic sensitivity of isolated staphylococcus strains

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out on 100 nasal swabs collected from medical personnel [nurses and doctors] and patients inside hospital environment and also from 50 individuals outside hospital. The swabs were inoculated on different culture media for isolation of staphylococci which were further identified as S. aureus either by classic bacteriologic methods or by one of rapid screening test of S. aureus. The isolated strains were tested for antibiotic sensitivity to some of B-Lactam antibiotics and to other antibiotics. The results showed that significantly higher percentage of coagulase + ve Staph. were isolated from newborn nursery [90%], operating theatre [71.4%] and hemodialysis unit [60%] than those isolated from intensive care unit, cancer chemotherapy, surgery, chest, internal medicine departments [25%, 26.6%, 31.2%, 33.3%, 50%] respectively. It also showed significant difference in isolation rate between persons at the hospital [patients, doctors and nurses] 44% and controls [normal population] 26%. Most isolates of coagulase + ve Staph. were resistant to penicillin G [93.2%], Streptomycin [77.3%], tetracyclin [61.4%] and sensitive to cefamandole [95.4%]. All coagulase + vs Staph. isolates were resistant to sulphonamide and methicillin and all sensitive to vancomycin