Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) from a rural based tertiary care and teaching hospital in Vadodara district, Gujarat

Background: Staphylococci are ubiquitous being the normal inhabitants of the skin and mucous membranes and the most common cause of human infections all throughout the world, both the community acquired as well as nosocomial infections. Objectives: Objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aures (MRSA) and detection of emergence of resistance to vancomycin among the Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) isolates. Materials and methods: Thus hundred S. aureus isolated from various clinical samples were tested for methicillin resistance by cefoxitin disc (30?g) and vancomycin resistance using Ezy MIC ? Vancomycin E-test. Results: The MRSA prevalence was found to be 52%. Of the total MRSA (n=52) 32 were obtained from male and 20 from female; and 36.54% from blood, 28.55%, 15.38%, 11.54% and 3.85% from pus, urine, sputum and body fluids respectively. The MRSA (n=52) were found to be resistant to antibiotics tested routinely but susceptible to levofloxacin (86.54%), doxycycline (92.31%), linezolid (96.15%) and vancomycin (100%). Inducible clindamycin resistance amongst MRSA was found to be 25%. All strains i.e.100% were sensitive to vancomycin indicating zero resistance to vancomycin. Conclusion: Though we did not find any resistance to vancomcyin in our setup, the prevalence of MRSA is high in our set up and calls for strict implementation of hospital infection control measures to prevent the spread of this organism and infections due to it. In this study E-test proved to be useful for detection of vancomycin resistance.