Journal of North Khorasan

Abstract Background & Objectives: Staphylococcus aureus is the most common bacteria in nosocomial infections. Nosocomial infections which caused by this bacterium in recent years, considerably, have been increased. This study was conducted in aim of prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage and antibiotic resistance patterns in health care workers, in Imam Reza hospital in Bojnurd. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 200 health care workers for 4 months. Nasal swabs were collected. After detection of Staphylococcus aureus isolates, the susceptibility to commonly used antibiotics was determined by disk diffusion method. Methicillin disk diffusion method was applied for detection of methicillin-resistant strains. Results: From 200 patients, 22 (11%) were nasal carrier of Staphylococcus aureus, and 3 of these (13.6%) were resistant to methicillin. In this study, the results indicated that from three nasal methicillin-resistant strains, two were resistant to vancomycin. Conclusions: Presence of nasal carriers, indicated presence of methicillin resistant S. aureus in hospital personnel of Imam Reza in Bojnurd. Although the prevalence of S. aureus nasal carriage was not very high, otherwise, with no attention, presence of MRSA, indicated wide distribution. We advice control measures for prevent MRSA transmission in high risk persons.