ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among Mouau students and determine the antibiotics susceptibility pattern. A total of 100 nasal swab samples were collected from 59 male and 41 female students of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia state. Nasal swabs specimens were collected from the anterior nares and cultured on Mannitol salt agar.  S. aureus isolates were identified by mannitol fermentation, coagulase positivity and catalase positivity. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed on Meuller-Hinton Agar (MHA) by modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Out of the 100 nasal swabs collected, S. aureus was isolated in 60 (60%). Among the isolates, 63.3% (n=38) were from male students whereas 36.7% (n=22) were from female. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the Staphylococcus aureus Isolates indicates that Staphylococcus aureus isolates showed high rate of sensitivity towards antibiotics as follows; Gentamicin (81.67%), followed by Ciprofloxacin (80%), Levofloxacin (76.67%), Ceftriaxone (58.33%) and resistance towards antibiotics Imipenem (100%) followed by Cefotaxime (90%), Cefexime (83.33%), Cefoxitin (65%), Azithromycin (55%), and Cefuroxime (50%). In this study the rate of MRSA isolation was found to be 65%. The MRSA carriage rate was found to be 73.9% in the age group 19-21years, 60% in the age group 22-24years and 58.8% in the age group 16-18years.This study showed a high rate of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among Mouau students and high incidence of antibiotics resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage. Finally, there is need to implement strategies for elimination of nasal carriage of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), so as to prevent severe multi-drug resistant S. aureus infections in our environments