ABSTRACT 

The antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Staphylococcus aureus collected from different private medical hospitals and laboratories was investigated in this study. A total of 50 of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from clinical specimens obtained from private medical hospitals and laboratories  in Umuahia, were tested against 8 antimicrobial agents using the disc agar diffusion method. Resistance to Augumentin was 100% among strains isolated from clinical specimens. The clinical isolates also exhibited high rates of resistance to Ceftazidine (98%) and Cefuroxime, (98%), Ceftriazone (94%), Erythromycin (96%) and Cloacillin (98%).

 Likewise, all (36%) and (46%) were resistant to gentamicin and cloxacillin, respectively. Isolates from nasal passages appeared to be less resistant to chloramphenicol (54.2%), gentamicin (43.4), streptomycin (31.3%) and tetracycline (51.8%).Ampicillin did not produce any zone of inhibition against 29 (96.7%) isolates from clinical specimens and only slightly inhibited one with zone of inhibition of 8mm. Nineteen of the isolates manifested low to high level of resistance to chloramphenicol with mean zone of inhibition ranging from 15. 8} 0.7 mm to 9.8} 2.0 mm. All the isolates were completely resistant to penicillin and cloxacillin with no zone of inhibition at all. In the case of gentamicin, 5 (16.7%) had intermediate susceptibility (mean zone of inhibition 14}0 mm), 12(40%) had mean inhibition zone of 9.6}2.9 mm and 6(20%) were not inhibited. This study shows that S. aureus strains isolated from clinical specimens and healthy students in Umuahia are highly resistant to common antibiotics. This may not be unconnected with indiscriminate use of antibiotics and calls for more control and rational use of antibiotics to minimize the rate of development of resistance to other antibiotics.