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Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol. 24, No. 3, July-September, 2006, pp. 236 Correspondence Isolation and methicillin resistance of Staphylococcus aureus from hospital personnels Zahoor S, Vaishnavi C, Kaur S, Bhatia A Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala - 147 002 Code Number: mb06070 Dear Editor, Nosocomial infections are one of the occupational biohazards which affect the health of workers with or without predisposing factors. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the major pathogens associated with community-acquired serious nosocomial infection because these strains generally show multiple drug resistance which limits treatment possibilities.[1] MRSA has become established outside the hospital environment and is now appearing in community populations without identifiable risk factors.[2] Hence, there is always a need to screen individuals exposed to such infection. In the present study, hospital personnels were screened for the incidence of S. aureus and MRSA. Swab samples collected from the hands of 174 hospital personnels which included 44 doctors, 71 nurses and 59 hospital attendants were screened for S. aureus employing conventional microbiological methods.[3],[4] Risk factors like age, sex, health status, nature of job and place of work were taken into consideration while analyzing the results. The rate of S. aureus positivity in the samples collected from doctors, nursing staff and hospital attendants was 32, 40 and 39%. Percentage of total methicillin resistance was 15.38%. Further, the results revealed that 7, 25 and 9% was methicillin resistance in the samples collected from doctors, nursing staff and hospital attendants respectively. The analyses of the data showed a higher prevalence of S. aureus in nursing staff and attendants compared to the doctors. Age, sex, health status could not be correlated with the rate of infection, however, it could be due to the nature of job and place of work of the individuals. The prevalence of S. aureus was found higher in surgical wards than the general wards. Our study shows that the risk of infection is higher in individuals occupationally exposed to such microbes. MRSA has been reported earlier from hospitals in various parts of world.[5] There is a need to screen individuals in hospitals for risk exposures and infections, to avoid outbreak and cross infections. References
Copyright 2006 - Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology |
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