title: Community prevalence of methicillin and vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in and around Bangalore, southern India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Staphylococcus aureus is a known colonizer in humans and has been implicated in community acquired soft tissue infections. However emergence of methicillin resistant S. aureus(MRSA) has aroused great concern worldwide. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of MRSA in the community of Bangalore, southern India.
  
  
  METHODS
  Swabs were collected from anterior nares, forearm, dorsum and palm of the hands of 1,000 healthy individuals residing in and around Bangalore, belonging to different socioeconomic strata and age groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analysis verified that 22.5% and 16.6% of the individuals presented Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA, respectively, at any of the three sites. Vancomycin resistance was observed in 1.4% of the S. aureus isolates, which was confirmed by detection of the vanA gene. It was interesting to note that 58.8% of the children in the age group 1-5 years-old presented MRSA, the highest percentage compared to other age groups of < 1 (44.4%) year-old, 5-20 (21.7%) years-old, > 40(11%) years-old and 20-40 (9.9%) years-old. Among the population of various socioeconomic strata, maximum MRSA colonization was observed among doctors (22.2%), followed by upper economic class (18.8%), lower economic class (17.7%), apparently healthy hospital in-patients (16.5%), nurses (16%) and middle economic class (12.5%). Most of the MRSA isolates were capsular polysaccharide antigen type 8 (57.1%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a need for continuous surveillance and monitoring of the presence of MRSA in the community and a clearer understanding of the dynamics of the spread of MRSA will assist in controlling its dissemination.
authors: Departamento de Estudos em Microbiologia, Universidade Gulbarga, Gulbarga, Karnataka, India. goud.rn@gmail.com
authors: Rajendra
authors: R
authors: Goud
authors: Soham
authors: S
authors: Gupta
authors: Ujjwal
authors: U
authors: Neogi
authors: Deepali
authors: D
authors: Agarwal
authors: Kesava
authors: K
authors: Naidu
authors: Raju
authors: R
authors: Chalannavar
authors: Gaddad
authors: G
authors: Subhaschandra
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015995:Prevalence; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance; D055815:Young Adult