Comparative Study On Prevalence Of Nasal Carriage Of MRSA And MSSA In Medical Students With Clinical Posting And Without Clinical Posting: Is Introduction Of Hospital Infection Control Policy In Medical Curiculum Need Of Hour

Infections caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a growing problem. Medical students are at risk of getting infected by MRSA during their training due to exposure with infected patients and may be a source of transmission for other patients. Therefore it may be important to know nasal carriage of MRSA among medical students going for clinical posting. This prospective study done on 141 medical student who are already going for clinical posting and 125 medical students who still have not started clinical posting were screened for the nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus. Swabs from anterior nares were inoculated on mannitol salt agar and blood agar. The participants were also given a questionnaire. MRSA screening was performed on Muller Hinton Agar by disc diffusion method using cefoxitin and oxacillin.The prevalence of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in students with clinical posting was 29 out of 141 (21%). Out of these, 3 (10%) were MRSA producer. Overall prevalence of MRSA was 3 out of 141(2.1%). Rest 112/141 (79.4%) were CoNS in which 9 (6.3%) showed resistance to cefoxitin. Contrary to it none of medical student without clinical posting showed MRSA or cefoxitin resistance. The carriage of MRSA in medical students with clinical postings highlights the need for introduction of infection control policies in medical curriculum .