Abstract
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a problem in healthcare institutions. This is due to its multi-drug resistant challenges. Hence, this study assessed the prevalence of methicillin resistant gene (mecA), exfoliative toxin (eta and etb) and toxic shock syndrome (tsst-1) genes in S. aureus isolated from clinical samples. A total of 120 clinical samples of patients (urine, high vagina swab (HVS), semen, wound swab, sputum and urethral swab) from a hospital laboratory were obtained. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated and then identified with API-staph kit. Susceptibility of the isolates was determined by agar diffusion while PCR was used to detect the presence of mecA and toxin-associated genes. Fifty S. aureus isolates were obtained at frequencies of 26(52%), 12(24%), 4(8%), 3(6%), 3(6%) and 2(4%) from the HVS, urine, semen, wound, sputum and urethral swab samples, respectively. All the isolates of S. aureus were resistant to the antibiotics used in this study (ceftazidime, cefuroxime, cloxacillin, erythromycin, ofloxacin, gentamicin, augmentin and ceftriaxone). MecA, tsst-1, eta and etb were detected in 19(38%), 7(14%), 3(6%) and 2(4%) of the isolates. The prevalence of MRSA and its resistance pattern observed in this study is a signal that the health-care workers and the general public are at risk.
