Frequency Distribution of Hospital-Acquired MRSA Nasal Carriage Among Hospitalized Patients in West of Iran

Background: hospital patients who are nasal carriers of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) are a high-risk potential threat to themselves and other hospitalized patients. the high antibiotic resistance of these isolates renders the treatment of related infections difficult.objectives: the present study, for the first time investigated the prevalence of mrsa isolates in nasal carriers in imam reza hospital in the western province of iran.materials and methods: nasal samples from 1269 hospitalized patients were tested for s. aureus. the sensitivity of these isolates to various antibiotics was evaluated by the disk diffusion method and e-test oxacillin strips. after determining the mic and inducible clindamycin resistance, the meca gene was investigated by pcr.results: 17.57% (223) of patients were ha-sa nasal carriers, with 82 isolates (36.8%) being resistant to methicillin (mrsa). the infant ward had the highest rate of carriage (80%). the difference in the sensitivity of mrsa and mssa isolates to several antibiotics was significant (p < 0.05); furthermore, 80.5% of mrsa isolates and 2.8% of mssa isolates were multi-drug resistant (mdr). a lower resistance was observed against clindamycin (58.5%), rifampicin (19.5%), and chloramphenicol (7.3%).conclusions: the high prevalence and antibiotic resistance of ha-mrsa isolates in western iran indicates the necessity of continuous monitoring of hospital patients in the country for the presence of mrsa, particularly in infant wards.