Prevalence of Nasal Colonization of CA-MRSA in Healthy Individuals and Its Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern

Background and purpose: Staphylococcus aureus, as a human pathogen, can produce a wide range of infections and its treatment has become a challenge due to increased resistance to antibiotics. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of methicillin-resistant (CA-MRSA) type and its antimicrobial susceptibility. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done in 974 healthy individuals, in Qaemshahr, Iran 2018. Nasal swabs were used for collecting samples. After isolating and detecting S. aureus strains, disk diffusion procedure was used with Mueller Hinton Agar plates to determine susceptibility to different antibiotics. Data analysis was done in SPSS V24. Results: S. aureus was detected in 28 cases (2.9%), of which, five were CA-MRSA. The highest rate of resistance was observed against ceftriaxone (n=28), erythromycin (n=28) and penicillin (n=28, 100%), followed by tetracycline (n=23, 82.1%), cephalotin (n=22, 78.6%), and clindamycin (n=21, 75%). Conclusion: In this study, the rate of CA-MRSA was similar to previous reports and according to findings, clindamycin (oral) may no longer be useful in its treatment.