Abstract
There has been a paucity of data on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus sciuri (MRSS) epidemiology in European healthcare settings. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of nasal and pharyngeal carriage and diversity of MRSS among inpatients and healthcare workers (HCWs) in the largest healthcare centre in Serbia, and to assess performance of different methods for MRSS screening. Nasal and pharyngeal swabs were obtained from 195 patients and 105 HCWs in different departments. Each swab was inoculated directly onto MRSA-ID, oxacillin-resistance screening agar and mannitol salt agar (MSA) with 2 mg/L of oxacillin. After inoculation, each swab was dipped in Mueller-Hinton broth with 6.5% NaCl and after overnight incubation, subcultured onto oxacillin-MSA. Characterisation of isolated MRSS strains was determined by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, PFGE, SCCmec typing and antimicrobial resistance genes detection. MRSS nasal and pharyngeal carriage rate was high (5%) in our hospital and department-variable. PFGE revealed a possible cross-transmission of MRSS between a patient and an HCW, and dissemination across hospital wards. All analysed isolates were multidrug resistant. Fusidic acid resistance was discovered in 93.7% of isolates, but fusA mutations in EF-G and fusB/C genes were not detected. SCCmec regions of MRSS contained elements of classic methicillin-resistant S. aureus type III. Broth enrichment prior to isolation on oxacillin-MSA was superior to direct cultivation on different media with a sensitivity/specificity of 100% and 88.5%, respectively. MRSS is a significant coloniser of patients and HCWs in the hospital. Further research is needed to investigate the clinical significance of the bacterium in our settings.
Highlights
Staphylococcus sciuri belongs to the group of oxidase-positive, novobiocin-resistant coagulasenegative staphylococci (CoNS) [1]
It has been recovered from the hospital environment [6] and S. sciuri is only occasionally isolated from humans, it has been associated with a number of serious infections such as septicemia, endocarditis, peritonitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, urinary tract infections and wound infections [1,2,7,8]
We found a high proportion of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) (10.3%) in a university hospital, whereby Serbia can be considered a country with a high prevalence of MRSA in the European perspective [12]
Summary
Staphylococcus sciuri belongs to the group of oxidase-positive, novobiocin-resistant coagulasenegative staphylococci (CoNS) [1] This bacterium is widespread in nature and can be isolated from a variety of pets, wild and domestic animals, insects, environment (soil, sand, water, air samples, etc.), and foods [1,2,3,4,5]. It has been recovered from the hospital environment [6] and S. sciuri is only occasionally isolated from humans, it has been associated with a number of serious infections such as septicemia, endocarditis, peritonitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, urinary tract infections and wound infections [1,2,7,8]. The knowledge about carriage of other methicillin-resistant staphylococci in hospitals, including methicillin-resistant S. sciuri (MRSS), is scarce
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