Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of MRSA and MRCoNS and their rate of resistance to different antistaphylococcal antibiotics used broadly for treatment.Of the 235 isolates, 164 isolates (69.8%) were identified as Staphylococcus aureus and the remaining seventy one (30.2%) were coagulase negative staphylococcus (CoNS), the frequency of MRSA by oxacillin screen agar method, eighty nine (54.2%) strains were MRSA and twenty eight (39.4%) were MRCoNS. The rate of multidrug resistance observed was 69% for MRSA and 72.5% for MRCoNS strains. Antibiotic resistance pattern of these isolates was high against penicillin 100 and 93%, erythromycin 83 and 75%, co-trimoxazole 82 and 79% for MRSA and MRCoNS strains respectively. In order to test beta-lactamase production, 83 and 86% of MRSA and MRCoNS isolates were beta-lactamase positive, respectively. However all strains of Staphylococcus were sensitive to vancomycin. Findings presented in this study indicated a high level of resistance to widely used therapeutic agents. Anappropriate knowledge on the current antibiotic susceptibility pattern of MRSA and MRCoNS is essential for appropriate therapeutic scenario.

Key words: Prevalence, antibiotic susceptibility, MRSA, MRCoNS, multidrug resistance.