Frequency of the Occurrence of Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Infections in Hyderabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a potential pathogen of hospital and community related infections. It secretes toxins or the enzymes as virulence factor of mild to severe infections and show resistance to  b-lactam antibiotic including penicillin, methicillin, oxacillin and now vancomycin that could alarm for equal risk factors of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) & other b-lactam resistant infections in the patients. A data of 381 patients of Hyderabad, Pakistan was collected from March 2013 to June 2014 in which 176 cases were reported for Staphylococcus aureus in both genders of different age groups of 3-15 y kids, 16-45 y adults and 45-70 y olds. The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus infection was reported in 208 males and 132 females that indicated 16 and 4 cases of MRSA infections in male and female patients, respectively. The laboratory diagnosis of the 200 samples from various hospitalized patients revealed the highest percentage of (MRSA) in pus and post-operative wounds (17%) followed by skin swabs (10%), sputum (7%) and blood (0%). The observations revealed greater prevalence of MRSA infection in elderly age 16-45 years males than the females and other age groups. Antibiotic susceptibility test of 26 antibiotics revealed resistance (R-53%), sensitive (S-39) and variable (V-7%) sensitivity zones(mm). Amplification of mecA gene was done using PCR reaction that revealed mecA gene bands up to 150-200 base pairs by test resistant strains.