Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of community and
hospital acquired infections. Additionally emergence of drug resistant strains especially
metacillin resistant staphylococcus aureus is a serious problem in hospital
environments. The objective of the study was to determine the nasal carriage and
antimicrobial sensitivity patterns of S. aureus isolates among Jimma University
Specialized Hospital health workers.
METHOD: A cross sectional study was conducted from February 20 - March 27, 2005.
Nasal swabs were collected from 82 subjects using sterile cotton swabs and cultured on
mannitol salt agar. Sensitivity pattern of isolates were done using eleven antibiotics.
RESULT: Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage was observed in 76 (92.7%) of
subjects from which 35 (42.5%) of the isolates were S. aureus. The drug sensitivity
test against penicillin 35 (100%), tetracycline 25 (71.4%), erythromycin 25 (71.4%),
gentamycin 24 (68.6%) and chloramphenicol 20 (57.1%). Resistance to
oxacillin/methicillin was observed in 15 (42.8%) of S. aureus isolates. All the 35
isolates were resistant to at least four of the antibiotics used.
CONCLUSION: Though the nasal carriage of S. aureus in the health professionals was
in the reported range by other studies, increased methicllin resistance Staphylococcus
aureus isolationaureus isolation was observed in the study. Furthermore, most of the
methicllin resistance Staphylococcus aureusaurous strains were resistant to other betalactamse, and were detected from health workers working in the wards indicating the
need for instituting strong infection control measures.
