Methicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococus from clinical isolates at Felege Hiwot Refferal Hospital, North West Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVES: Methicillin-resistant staphylococci are one of the major causes of nosocomial infection. The aim of this study was to determine Methicillin-resistant strain of staphylococci and its antibiotic resistance.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Across--sectional study was done on 162 S. aureus and 59 coagulase-negative staphylococci from 151 inpatients and 70 outpatients at Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital from 1st April to June 31, 2006. Methicillin resistance was identified by detecting penicillin binding protein 2' (PBP2') using PBP2' Latex (Oxoid Ltd, Basingstoke, UK) and cefoxitin (30 microg) disc-diffusion method
RESULTS: The isolation rate of methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRSA and MRCoNS) was found to be 55% and 78% respectively. MRSA and MRCoNS showed higher rates of multi-drug resistance against other commonly prescribed antibiotics such as penicillin G 89 (100%), ceftriaxon 85 (99.5%) tetracycline 80 (89.88%), erythromycin 69 (77.5%), ciprofloxacin 67 (75.3%) and gentamicin 63 (70.78%) compared to methicillin-susceptible staphylococci (MSSA & MSCoNS). The overall prevalence of MRSA and MRCONS was 59.7% of which 72.8% was from inpatients and 31.4% outpatients.
CONCLUSION: High rates of MRSA and MRCON with its multi-drug resistance will pose a big challenge in therapy of MRSA and MRCON infection, thus, empirical therapy of this infection should include glycopeptid drugs and further studies on prevention and control of MRSA and MRCoNS infection in hospital need to be conducted