Prevalence of Methicillin-Resistant and Methicillin Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Carriage and their Antibiotic Resistant Patterns in Kirkuk City, Iraq

Abstract

The carriage of community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA) has become a source of community-associated infections, particularly in the anterior nares of people worldwide. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of community-acquired S. aureus (CA-SA) and CA-MRSA nasal carriage among healthy individuals of various ages in Kirkuk City and evaluating the susceptibility of isolates to various antibiotics. A total of 597 healthy individuals were recruited in the community between December 1, 2021, and December 30, 2022. Nasal swabs obtained from participants were taken to the laboratory, where bacteria were isolated and identified using phenotypic characteristics. The MRSA isolates were identified by applying the modified Kirby Bauer disc diffusion technique. The results showed that the prevalence of CA-SA and CA-MRSA nasal carriers was 16.6 and 4.5%, respectively. The average age of the participants was 33.2 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.1: 1. The highest resistance of the isolates was observed against oxacillin (27.3%), followed by penicillin G (24.3%), amoxicillin (15.2%), erythromycin (12.1%), and tetracycline (6.1%). There was a 9.1% resistance rate to clindamycin, rifampin, gentamycin, and ciprofloxacin. However, all CA-MRSA isolates were multi-drug resistant. However, all the isolates were sensitive (100 %) to vancomycin, linezolid, and mupirocin. The findings of the present study highlight the potential for CA-SA and CA-MRSA acquisition in this population, which may be related to antibiotic abuse or overuse as well as poor hygiene. To lessen the impact of community-associated strains of MRSA nasal carriage, this necessitates the probable need for infection prevention measures and adequate antibiotic therapy.

Molecular Identification and Genotyping of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (Mrsa) in Different Clinical Samples

“…The overall resistant rates, against different antibiotics used in this study, were relatively compatible with those reported by Abdulqader and Saadi (2019) in Erbil city, who reported a relatively high resistant rates (20-60%) of S. aureus isolates including MRSA to the majority of the antibiotics used. However, the multidrug resistance rate (57.5%) reported in the current study was almost doubled comparing with the multidrug resistance of S. aureus isolates (33.3%) reported by AL-Salihi et al, (2023) in Kirkuk city, Iraq. The prevalence of MRSA is still used to gauge the proper use of antibiotics as well as effective infection control and prevention techniques.…”