Incidence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Nostrils of Mouau Students

Aim: This study is carried out to determine the prevalence of nasal carriage of staphylococcus aureus among Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) students and determine the antibiotics susceptibility pattern.

Methods: Nasal swab specimens collected from the anterior nares were cultured on mannitol salt agar. S.aureus isolates were identified by mannitol fermentation, coagulase positivity and catalase positivity. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed on Meuller-Hinton Agar (MHA) by modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.

Result: Out of the 100 swabs collected, S.aureus was isolated from 60% of the samples. Among colonized students, 63.3% (n=38) were from male students whereas 36.7% (n=22) were from female. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates indicates that Staphylococcus aureus isolates showed high rate of sensitivity towards antibiotics as follows; Gentamycin (81.67%), followed by Ciprofloxacin (80%), Levofloxacin (76.67%), Ceftriaxone (58.33%), and resistance towards antibiotics Imipenem (100%) followed by Cefotaxime (90%), Cefexime (83.33%), Cefoxitin (65%), azithromycin (55%) and cefuroxime (50%).

Conclusion: This study showed a high rate of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among MOUAU students and a high incidence of antibiotics resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage.