prevalence of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) and antibiotic resistance patterns of the isolates from the nose of training soldiers in kerman in 2012

Background and Aim: The increases in the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from outside healthcare settings are recently reported. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of community-acquired MRSA and antibiotic resistance of the isolates from nose of military training soldiers in Kerman city- 2012. Materials and Methods: Nasal samples were collected from 567 training soldiers. S. aureus was identified using standard Methods. MRSA phenotype was screened by oxacillin and cefoxitin disc. The MRSA was genetically confirmed by detection of mecA gene by PCR methods. Antibiotic susceptibility to six antibacterial agents was determined by standard agar disc diffusion method. Induction of resistance to clindamycin  was performed using the D-test. Results: samples were isolated from the nose of 39.8% of training soldiers. By the methods used 7.6% of the isolates were identified as MRSA all of them harbored mecA gene and were sensitive to vancomycin. The highest rate of resistance was detected against erythromycin (23.3%). Resistance to, clindamycin, gentamicin, trimethoprime sulfamethoxazole and ciprofloxacin were 14%, 16.3%, 14% and 9.3% respectively. Induced of Clindamycin resistance among MRSA isolates was not observed. Conclusions: The high frequency of isolation of S aureus from nose in military population studied is remarkable. The prevalence of MRSA in this group was %7.8.Although resistance to other antibacterial agents was not high in these isolates, but due to the increasing importance of community acquired MRSA frequent surveillance of this and similar type of population are required in intervals, and physicians should be informed about the presence of these bacteria to choose appropriate drug for therapy.