Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Carriage of ENT Patients in Ho Chi Minh City

Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage is a significant risk factor for the epidemic staphylococcal infection in hospitals; however, few data are available for Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. To measure the nasal carriage of S. aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus in ENT patients, two hundred seventy patients were screened for nasal swabs. The isolates were identified as S. aureus by routine microbiological methods. Susceptibility test was performed on S. aureus strains using disk diffusion method. MRSA strains were detected the presence of mecA gene by PCR. Sixty-four strains (23.7%) were isolated from 270 patients of ENT Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. MRSA was isolated from 17 patients (6.3%) and MSSA was from 47 patients (17.4%). Of the 64 nasal carriers, 36 (56.25%) were women, and 28 (43.75%) were men, therefore no significant difference between the sexes with regard to rates of carriage was observed. No strain of S. aureus was found resistant to vancomycin. The susceptibility rates to the antibiotics were as follows: penicillin and erythromycin, 7.8%; ampicillin, 10.9%; cephalexin, 65.6%; chloramphenicol, 54.7%; doxycycline, 85.9%; gentamicin, 76.6%; cotrimoxazole, 68.8% and ciprofloxacin, 60.9%. All MRSA strains were multi-resistant to cephalexin and erythromycin. Of MRSA strains, 15/17 (88.23%) had corresponding mecA gene while 2 remaining strains were borderline-oxacillin resistant S. aureus phenotype. The determination of antibiotic sensitivity pattern of MRSA and the mecA gene among S. aureus nasal isolates will help the clinicians for strategy treatment in hospitals. ©All right reserved.