Abstract

Background: Emergence of methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections among the healthy persons in the commu- nity settings has been noted recently. MRSA infections are now classified as health-care-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) and community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections. Its colonization is an important risk factor for subsequent MRSA infection.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in the school going children in Gulbarga and their antibiotic susceptibility pattern. Methods: Nasal swabs from anterior nares were collected for the isolation of S. aureus from 131 healthy children aged between 5 and 15 years from university school, Gulbarga, Karnataka. The nasal swabs were inoculated in nutrient broth for enrichment of S. aureus then streaked on Mannitol Salt Agar (MSA) and incubated at 37 °C for 24 h. For characteri- zation of the S. aureus, conventional methods such as growth characteristics on mannitol salt agar, Gram’s staining, and biochemical characteristics have been performed. Antibiotic sensitivity test was carried out for the isolated S. aureus using different antibiotics.
Results: A total of 131 nasal swabs were screened and the incidence of S. aureus was observed to be 77.86%. Of the total 102 S. aureus isolates, 4 (3.92%) isolates were found to be MRSA and 96.10% isolates were MSSA. A total of 26 (25.4%) isolates were found to be multi-drug resistant (MDR) in this study. Conclusion: Our results suggest that healthy school going children below 16 years of age are potential carriers of S. aureus and in particular MRSA and MDR strains.