title: Nasal carriage of Methicillin- and Mupirocin-resistant S. aureus among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ranks top among the nosocomial pathogens. Nasal formulation of mupirocin is found to eradicate MRSA from colonized individuals, but the emergence of resistant strains is a matter of concern.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nasal swabs were collected from 200 health care workers (HCWs) who were screened for MRSA. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was used to perform antibiotic susceptibility test. MRSA detection was done using a cefoxitin 30 µg disc and interpreted according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Determination of mupirocin resistance was performed using Epsilometer test (E-test).
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 14% of HCWs showed nasal carriage of MRSA. Nursing orderlies were the predominant carriers. E-test showed four mupirocin resistant isolates. The antibiogram of the MRSA isolates revealed the higher resistance to antibiotics as compared to methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. All the MRSA isolates were sensitive to linezolid.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HCWs in our hospital showed high nasal carriage rate of MRSA, particularly the nursing orderlies which is statistically significant. It is advisable to detect mupirocin resistance among the isolates obtained from the HCWs so that in case of resistance, alternative treatment should be sought.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Loveleena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Amit Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Chandrim
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sengupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Amitabh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agarwal
keywords: Health care workers; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; mupirocin-resistant S. aureus; nasal carriage