The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus carriage amongst medical personnel and medical students in clinics from the Mureş county Emergency Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus is a bacteria that is carried on the skin and and in the nose of healthy people on a common basis. Because it can easily acquire resistance to all classes of antibiotics can cause devastating infections in patients that contact the bacteria during their hospitalization. Knowing the prevalence of the carriage of S. aureus amongst medical personnel is important to lower the S. aureus infections in inbound patients and also lower the cost and the number of hospitalization days. Materials and methods: Nasal swabs were collected from each participant using sterile swabs. The nasal swabs specimens were transported to the laboratory and processed within 2 hours of collection. The swab was discharged on blood agar plate and also on manitol salt agar plate, incubated at 37°C and examined after 24h. The Fisher test was used to calculate the relative risk for the patients to acquire an S. aureus infection during their hospitalization. The result of the discussion: From the 177 participants that were involved in the study the S. aureus colonization amongst them was of 18% of which 2% is represented by MRSA. Even if these values are not statistically significant (p=0.8230) the knowledge of the carriage on different departments of the medical unit helps improve the medical care. Conclusion: Even though the MRSA carriage is only 2%, the nasal carriage can be a risk factor for nosocomial infections. It is important to comprehend the status of S. aureus carriers especially MRSA to prevent nosocomial infections.