Epidemiology of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolated From Health Care Providers in Mofid Children Hospital

Background:Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most important agents producing nosocomial diseases in hospitalized children. Consequently, screening of in hospital health care providers who are in direct contact with patients is necessary.Objectives:The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of MRSA in health care providers, their antimicrobial resistance pattern and Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing.Materials and Methods:Two hundred and twenty nine health care providers were examined and nasal samples were sent for S. aureus culture and sociodemographic data were obtained from them, during one year, from August 2012 to July 2013. After MRSA identification, all isolates were examined for antibiotic resistance pattern and SCCmec typing.Results:Staphylococci were isolated from 27 samples. Twenty one of them were MRSA. The highest resistance to antibiotics was for penicillin (90.3%) and ceftazidime (77.4%). All isolates were sensitive to linezolid and vancomycin. Two isolates (9%) had SCCmec I, five (23%) had SCCmec II, nine (42%) had SCCmec III, and one (4%) had SCCmec IV. Four isolates were nontypable by using the published primers, perhaps indicating the existence of a novel SCCmec class.Conclusions:Carrier samples screening is considered inferior to clinical samples. Treatment of a variety of infectious diseases is difficult due to resistant bacteria. Consequently, annual screening of these individuals, detecting the carriers and decolonizing them to reduce transmission of S. aureus in the hospital are necessary.