Mupirocin Resistance Among Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Isolates in a Tertiary Health Care Center.

Abstract

The evolution of antibiotics in the last century has revolutionized the field of medicine and led this field to higher level of success in treating mild to severe infections, but the inappropriate use of these life saving drugs has been accompanied with the appearance of resistant strains to these agents. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence rate of high and low-level mupirocin resistance in methicillin resistant staphylococcus,and to find out resistance to other antibiotics. This study was conducted on 100 Staphylococcus isolates recovered from pus samples. Conventional disc diffusion tests were used for the detection of high and low level mupirocin resistance (mupirocin 5µg and 200µg discs) and for various other antimicrobials for example cephalexin, erythromycin, doxycycline, oxacillin, linezolid etc. Results: Outof 100 Staphylococcus isolates processed during the study period in the department of microbiology, 74 were Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) and 26 were Coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CoNS). Among S.aureus 43.4% were Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and 56.6% were Methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), whereas among CoNS 42% were methicillin resistant and 58% were methicillin sensitive. We observed 6.75% of high level mupirocin resistance among Staphylococcus aureus and 19.23% among Coagulase negative staphylococcus. It was concluded that an inappropriate excessive use of mupirocin leads to a rapid increase in high-level resistance to mupirocin and other antibiotics in CoNS, affecting the treatment lines and success rate of infection control in hospital settings.