Prevalence and Antibiotic SensitivityPattern of Staphylococcus aureusIsolates of Non-Hospital Origin

Title: Antibiogram of Staphylococcus aureus isolates bacteriologically recovered from urine samples of pupils. Background: The emergence and spread of strains of S. aureus that are resistant to some first line antibiotics is of public health importance. Staphylococcus aureus is ubiquitously found in the environment as a commensal organism, but pathogenic strains of the bacterium that are resistant to some commonly available antibiotics puts antimicrobial therapy at risk. This study reports the prevalence and sensitivity of S. aureus from primary school pupils. Methods and findings: A total of 25 urine samples were collected and bacteriologically analyzed for the isolation of S. aureus isolates. The antibiogram of the S. aureus isolates was carried out using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method as per the CLSI guideline. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS. Out of 25 urine samples screened for the isolation of S. aureus, 22 (88%) of them were confirmed positive. S. aureus was found to be higher in females 12 (93.3%) compared to males (n=10; 83.3%). In females, the occurrence of S. aureus isolates was highest among pupils aged ≤ 7 years (n=6; 100%), and this was followed by pupils aged 8-10 years (n=4; 80%). S. aureus isolates was least recovered from urine samples of pupils aged ≥ 12 years (n=2; 100%). There was no statistical difference in the rate of isolation of S. aureus isolates in relation to the age and sex of the pupils recruited for this study. The S. aureus isolates were resistant or intermediately resistant to ampicillin (77.2%), chloramphenicol (72.2%), ampicillin (77.2%) and levofloxacin (59.0%). But they were considerably sensitive to gentamicin (77.2%) and ciprofloxacin (72.7%). Conclusions: Our study has shown that S. aureus isolates from apparently healthy pupils are drug resistant in nature. We recommend a periodic screening of environmental isolates of S. aureus in order to contain any disease outbreak due to drug resistant S. aureus isolates.