Suppurative Infections in Hospitalized Patients – An Ongoing MRSA Threat

Abstract

Background: Penicillin resistance among Staphylococcus aureus commonly encountered in the hospital admitted patients. Detection of antibiotic sensitivity in hospital acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections is important as it has great influence on empiric antibiotic prescription, successful control of infection, prevention of spread of disease and successful patient management. This study aimed to detect the frequency of HA-MRSA from pus samples in a hospital setup with assessment of their antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Microbiology department of Basic Medical Science Institute, JPMC, Karachi from January 2015 until December 2015. Pus samples from surgical site wounds, skin lesions, abscesses from surgical and medical wards and ICUs were collected. According to the standards given by CLSI 2014, MRSA testing of the samples was done and susceptibility testing for antibiotics was performed. Inducible clindamycin resistance was detected by D-Test. E Test determined the MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) for vancomycin. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 16. Result: Out of the 149 MRSA identified from the pus samples, 106 (71.14%) samples were HA-MRSA. The number of male patients was more than the female patients (67.66%). Out of the 106 HA-MRSA, 91(85.8%) were sensitive to TMP/SMX, 98(92.5%) to rifampicin, 12(11.6%) to gentamicin, 85(80.2%) to tetracycline, 11(10.4%) to erythromycin, 37(34.9%) to clindamycin, 20(18.9%) to ciprofloxacin, 106 (100%) to both vancomycin and linezolid. Conclusion: HA-MRSA showed sensitivity to TMP/SMX and vancomycin making them effective drugs to use in combination in superficial infections. The drug linezolid also showed 100% sensitivity.