Master Program in Clinical Laboratory Science (MCLS), Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine
Preferred Abstract (Original):
Community-acquired
meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is becoming an important
public-health problem. This study attempted to investigate S. aureus and MRSA
colonization in nasal swabs obtained from 843 patients without a history of
hospitalization at the time of hospital admission and from 72 health-care
workers chosen for comparison. Of the patients, S. aureus was detected in 218/843
(25.9 %) and MRSA in 17/843 (2.0 %). Of the health-care workers, S. aureus was
detected in 15/72 (20.8 %) and MRSA in 10/72 (13.9 %). The majority of the 27
MRSA isolates exhibited a sensitivity pattern expected for CA-MRSA. Multilocus
restriction fragment typing resolved the isolates into eight restriction
fragment types. The predominant restriction fragment types were AAACCAA and
AAAAAAA, accounting for 51.9 % (14/27) of the MRSA isolates and included CC5
and CC1 groups, respectively. This study thus demonstrated the transmission of
CA-MRSA strain types into a health-care setting, emphasizing the need for
implementation of a revised set of control measures in both hospital and
community settings