Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus among nurses in a tertiary care hospital in northern Sri Lanka.

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage in the hands among 109 nursing staffs of Teaching Hospital, Jaffna, Sri Lanka was screened. Of those screened, 43 (39.44%) strains of S. aureus were isolated and among that one third were MRSA. Antibiotic resistant pattern of MRSA strains were found to be highly variable. Resistance to ampicillin, cefuroxime, ciprofloxacin, netilmicin and amikacin were found to be 76.9%, 76.9%, 53.8%, 23% and 23% respectively. More than one tenth of the nursing staff were at risk of transmitting the infection and therefore standard infection control precautions should be followed to minimise carriage and transmission.