Evaluation of antibiotic susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from nasal and thumb prints of University students and their resistance pattern.

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus has long been known as one of the most important bacteria that cause disease in humans. It may gain access to underlying tissues or the bloodstream and cause infection and it's a leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections such as abscesses. Colonization with S. aureus usually precedes an infection. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of S. aureus carrier frequency among students community and to characterise the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated organism. The frequency of S. aureus carriage among students from University of Nigeria, Nsukka was investigated. A total of 120 nasal swabs and thumbprint samples were collected from healthy microbiology and biochemistry students. All swabs were streak on mannitol salt agar (MSA); incubated at 37 o C for 24 h. Characterization of the bacterial isolates was based on standard microbiological methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was also assayed in order to detect any antibiotic resistant S. aureus. Antimicrobial susceptibility of confirmed isolates was determined by disc-diffusion method. The results obtained showed that, 42(70 %) of microbiology students had Staphylococcus aureus colonization in both nasal and thumb. Also, 49 (81.66 %) biochemistry students, had staphylococcus colonisation. Antibiotic susceptibility test of isolated S. aureus demonstrated a varying degree of resistance with the highest seen with β lactam antibiotics. Amongst the β lactam antibiotics, Cloxacillin showed the highest resistance with 100 %, while all the isolates were 100 % susceptible to Gentamicin, 95 % to Streptomycin. This result shows the likelihood of a changing resistant pattern among the students community. The reasons could be multifactorial and warrants further investigation.