Prevalence and Antibiogram of Rothia mucilaginosa and Staphylococcus spp Isolated from Oral Cavity of Students in a Tertiary Institution

Bacteremia and systemic infection caused by Rothia mucilaginosa and Staphylococcus spp are uncommon and their resistance to antibiotics are becoming overwhelming. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate the prevalence and antibiogram of Rothia mucilaginosa and Staphylococcus spp from oral cavity of students in a Tertiary Institution. A total of fifty (50) specimen were collected from the oral cavity of male and female students in Rivers State University and subjected to standard microbiological procedures such as culturing, isolation, identification as well as antibiotic susceptibility test. Sixty-seven (67) isolates were identified where Staphylococcus aureus were 43 isolates, Rothia mucilaginosa were 18 isolates and six (6) isolates were Staphylococcus epidermidis. All the isolates of Rothia mucilaginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis were positive for the presence of haemolysin and catalase enzymes. The results of the percentage occurrence among male and female students revealed that Staphylococcus aureus had the highest occurrence (64.18%:59.38%) followed closely by Rothia mucilaginosa (22.86%:31.25%) while Staphylococcus epidermidis had the least prevalence (8.95%:9.37%) in male and female respectively. The result of the susceptibility patterns showed that majority of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Rothia mucilaginosa were highly sensitive to ciprofloxacin (90.70%; 100%; 83.33%) and gentamicin (76.74%; 83.33%: 100%), and highly resistant to azithromycin (44.19% and 66.67%) for Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Rothia mucilaginosa were highly resistant to ampiclox (61.11%). The results of the multidrug resistance index of 37 (86.05%) of the 43 S. aureus isolates had a MAR index ≥ 0.2, 15 (83.33%) of the 18 R. mucilaginosa isolates had MAR index ≥ 0.2 and (100%) of the S. epidermidis also had a MAR index ≥ 0.2. This study displays about serious threat to public health because these microorganisms can become pathogen causing diseases such as septicemia, endocarditis, and other life-threatening infections. It also illustrated the risks associated with the indiscriminate use of antibiotics are advised.