Prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility profile of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

Over the last four decades, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has spread throughout the world and become highly endemic in many geographical areas. This pathogen causes severe morbidity and mortality in hospitals worldwide. MRSA is also considered a major community acquired pathogen throughout the world. MRSA is implicated in serious clinical conditions such as bacteremia, pneumonia, and intra-abdominal infection. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of MRSA in Accra, Ghana, and also to determine its antibiotic susceptibility profile. Two hundred and fifty Staphylococcus aureus isolates from routine microbiological specimens were collected from five hospitals in Accra. MRSA screening assay was used to screen for MRSA. Disc diffusion method (KirbyBauer) was used to determine the susceptibility of the MRSA. The MRSA screening assay, which is very close to the polymerase chain reaction in terms of specificity and sensitivity, showed that 84 of the 250 isolates were MRSA, giving a prevalence rate of 33.6%. MRSA strains were susceptible to erythromycin; 63 out of the 84 MRSA isolates were susceptible representing 75%. This was followed by gentamicin 46 (54.7%), cotrimoxazole 35 (49%), cefuroxime 33 (38%), flucloxacillin 24 (28.6%), and ampicillin 13 (15.5%). Penicillin 4 (4.8%) and tetracycline 6 (7.1%) were the least susceptible. The findings from this study emphasize the need for continual surveillance of MRSA and of antibiotic resistance in general.

Epidemiology, prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility profiles of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in farm animals and farm workers in the Central Region of Ghana

“…The antimicrobial resistance profiles shown in the present study are comparable to many other studies within and outside Ghana reiterating the fact that pathogens are likely to develop resistance to most commonly used drugs (Penicillin, Ampicillin and Erythromycin) as opposed to less commonly used drugs Ciprofloxacin and Vancomycin (Verkade et al, 2014;Odonkor et al, 2012;Moyo et al, 2014). Unlike other previous studies, all the MRSA isolates were somehow resistant to all the classes of antibiotics used in the study except for Vancomycin, Augmentin and Ciprofloxacin.…”

“…Although direct comparison cannot be made because a control group was not used in the assessment of human colonisation, the prevalence of colonisation in farm workers (45%) was quite high and is much greater than has been reported in some research work in the general population in Accra. For example, a study by Odonkor et al (2012) in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana estimated a population colonisation of 84 MRSA out of the 250 S. aureus isolates, giving a prevalence rate of 33.6% of the samples collected from microbiological samples from hospital in Accra-Ghana. Further, a study on MRSA prevalence on people who visited the University of Ghana Hospital was only one (9.1%) out of 11 S. aureus positive isolates (Pesewu et al, 2014).…”

“…Due to the interspecies transmission of MRSA and the health risks of MRSA colonisation, there is the need to research into the roles animals play in human MRSA infections. In Ghana, very little is known about the nasal carriage prevalence of MRSA among humans (Egyir et al, 2015, Odonkor et al, 2012. In addition, there are no published data on MRSA carriage in farm animals and farm workers.…”

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among patients in a teaching hospital in Ghana

“…In most African countries, the prevalence was <50% before the year 2000 but has seen an increased trend in recent times with an exception to South Africa [9]. Few studies that have looked at MRSA prevalence in Ghana showed an ambit of 16.6-47.3% [10,11,12,15]. Our study found MRSA prevalence of 34.8% which is consistent with reported rates in Ghana and other countries including France, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, and Cameroon [10,[16][17][18] but lower than the 44.2% reported in Nigeria [19].…”

“…Some authors have suggested that the rising incidence of MRSA in many African countries is an obvious threat to the continent [9] but in Ghana few studies have described the prevalence of MRSA [10][11][12]. Continuous monitoring of multidrug-resistant pathogens such as MRSA is of importance for the creation and implementation of infection control systems.…”