prevalence of nasal carriage rate and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from syrian students in kurdistan, iraq

Background: staphylococcus aureus is a frequent infectious agent that is responsible for various infections in hospitals and communities. objectives: we aimed to study the nasal carriage rate and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of s. aureus among syrian civilians in duhok city, iraq. methods: a total of 335 participants were included from syrian refugees in duhok city, iraq. conventional lab tests such as gram staining, mannitol fermentation, catalase, and coagulase were used for bacterial identification. antibiotic susceptibility testing was carried out by using the kirbybauer disk diffusion method and agar dilution assay, according to the clinical and laboratory standards institute. results: out of the 355 samples, 140 (39.4%) were confirmed as s. aureus. the highest resistance rate was against oxacillin (35%) followed by fusidic acid (27.86%). the resistance rates against tetracycline, gentamicin, vancomycin, and ciprofloxacin were 22.1%, 17.86%, 11.4%, and 8.57%; respectively. teicoplanin showed no resistance. conclusions: we recommend that the antibiotic profile of s. aureus among syrian refugees needs to be monitored. we found resistance against most of the antibiotics used in the study, and the highest rate of resistance was against oxacillin.