Prevalence of Nasal Carriage of Community-associated Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus(CA-MRSA) among Healthy Primary School Children in Okada, Nigeria

Abstract

Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are very difficult to cure because MRSA strains are resistant against almost all clinically available antibiotics. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of MRSA colonization in nasal carriers among healthy school children in Okada community and their resistance patterns to nine commonly used antibiotics. A total of 120 nasal swab samples were collected from healthy school children and screened for S. aureus using standard microbiological procedures. Disc diffusion technique was applied to determine their antibiotic susceptibility profiles. A total of 22 (18.3%) S. aureus and 13 (10.8%) MRSA isolates were obtained. Of these, 12 (20%) S. aureus and 7 (11.7%) MRSA were obtained from females while 10 (16.7%) S. aureus and 6 (10%) MRSA were from males. Also, 12 (19.4%) S. aureus and 7 (11.3%) MRSA were from the age range 9-14years while 10 (17.3%) S. aureus and 6 (10.3%) MRSA were from the age range 3-8years. There was no statistical significant in age and sex. The isolates were resistant to ampicillin(100%), cloxacillin(100%), penicillin(100%), tetracycline(82%), chloramphenicol(73%), erythromycin(68%), gentamicin(64%), streptomycin(56%) and oxacillin(55%). All the MRSA isolates (13) obtained showed multi-drug resistance to at least five antibiotics tested.

Key words: Community-associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), healthy school children, nasal carriers, prevalence.