EPIDEMIOLOGICAL TOOL IN THE STUDY OF MRSA NASAL CARRIAGE AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS OF TERITARY CARE HOSPITAL - ITS UTILITY

Abstract

Background And Objectives: Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of community and hospital acquired infections. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a common nosocomial pathogen in the ICUs and other parts of the hospital and presents a challenge for all health care institutions. One of the important sources of MRSA in hospital setting is nasal carriage among health care workers (HCW's). Thus screening of health care workers for MRSA carriage will be helpful in preventing spread of MRSA from colonized health care workers to patients. The objective of the study is to to estimate the prevalence of nasal carriage of MRSA among health care workers of our institution. It is a prospective study done at Institute of Microbiology, Madurai Materials And Methods: Medical College, Madurai with the study period of two months. Nasal swabs collected from 100 healthcare workers working in different departments of our tertiary care hospital. All the swabs were inoculated on to Mannitol salt agar plates and incubated at 37°c for 24hrs to isolate Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA strains were identied by disc diffusion method using Cefoxitin (30฀g) disc. Results: Out of 100 HCWs, 21 (21%) were nasal carriers of S.aureus and among them 2(2/21) (9.5%) were carrier of MRSA. The overall nasal carriage rate of MRSA was 2%(2/100). S. aureus carriage rate was highest among Staff nurses 27.7 % (5/18) while MRSA carriage rate was highest among Interns 3.3%(1/30). In our study, nasal Conclusion: carriage of MRSA among the health care workers is 2 % with the rate being highest among Interns. Considering the fact that Health Care Workers are more involved in the patient care activities, it is necessary to sensitize them regarding this issue and we should emphasize the importance of hand washing on them.