African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (11), pp. 1321-1324, November 2005          
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2005 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Prevalence and susceptibility pattern of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates among healthy women in Zaria, Nigeria

Adebola Onanuga*, Avosuahi R. Oyi and Josiah A. Onaolapo

Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: adebolaonanuga@yahoo.co.uk. Tel: +2348034524996.

Accepted 16 September, 2005

Multi-resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MMRSA) has been commonly reported to be one of the commonest causes of nosocomial infections worldwide. Also, recent reports describe methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) carriage in persons in the community. The study investigated its prevalence in urine of healthy women and its susceptibility pattern to other antibiotics. Urine samples collected from healthy women volunteers in Zaria were cultured and screened for S. aureus using standard microbiological procedures. The isolates were then subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing using disc diffusion technique. A total of 54 (36%) S. aureus isolates were isolated from 150 urine samples collected. The prevalence rate for married and single women was 31% and 46%, respectively. Of the S. aureus isolates, 37 (69%) were methicillin-resistant. The MRSA were highly resistant to ampicillin 100%, cephalexin 100%, clindamycin 92%, vancomycin 89% but had low resistance to pefloxacin 35%, ofloxacin 27% ciprofloxacin 27%, sparfloxacin 24% and gentamicin 16%.  All the 37 (100%) MRSA isolates showed resistance to at least two antibiotics tested while 33 (89.2%) were multi-drug resistant.

Key words: Prevalence, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, susceptibility, healthy women.