Abstract

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Strains of Staphylococcus aureus resistant to beta-lactamase stable antibiotics such as methicillin, oxacillin and cloxacillin, commonly called Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have become a serious public health concern worldwide. Nasal carriage is a major risk factor for infection with MRSA. In this study, nasal carriage rate of Cloxacillin resistant S. aureus was assessed among students of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Nasal swabs were collected from 50 apparently healthy students and cultured on Mannitol salt agar for isolation of S. aureus. Coagulase positive S. aureus was isolated from 39 (78%) of the nasal swab specimens. The isolates were tested for their antibiotic susceptibility profile against Cloxacillin and seven other antibiotics using the disc agar diffusion method. Of the 39 S. aureus isolates, 32(82.1%) were resistant to Cloxacillin, giving a nasal carriage rate of Cloxacillin-resistant S. aureus of 64% among the students. Thirty seven (94.9%) and 35(89.7%) of the isolates were sensitive to Streptomycin and Gentamycin, respectively. The isolates exhibited various levels of resistance to other antibiotics, ranging from 33% to Chloramphenicol to 69.2% to Cotrimoxazole. The high level of resistance to Cloxacillin in this study should alert the public health authorities to ?he risk of infections with MRSA and the need to institute infection control measures to prevent outbreaks of MRSA related diseases both in healthcare settings and in community

Keywords: Antibiotic susceptibility, Cloxacillin-resistance, nasal carriage, MRSA, Staphylococcus aureus.