Screening of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci in the nasal cavity of patients and healthy individuals

• Main Author: Naiyf S. Alharbi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-01-01
• Series: Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319562X19300956

The normal microbiota play critical roles in the general health of an individual and the functions of the microbiota colonized the nasal cavity in maintaining the health of the respiratory tract are well known. The nasal cavity is one of the potential bio-sources of the pathogenic opportunistic bacteria that have the ability to resist standard antibiotics. My aim was an evaluation of the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci in the nasal cavity of healthy individuals and compared them with the strains isolated from patients. The work was designed as prospective, descriptive study in Medical University Hospital (MUH) and Botany and Microbiology Department, King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, respectively. Strain isolation, purification, and preservation were performed according to standard protocols and the identification of pure bacterial cultures was carried out using a fully automatic system (VITEK 2 system). The isolates identified as Staphylococcus spp. were subjected to investigation. In patients, 34 out of 6668 isolates were Staphylococcus spp. obtained from the nasal cavity, while 32 out of 320 isolates from the nasal cavity of healthy individuals were Staphylococcus spp. The results confirmed that all the isolates were resistant to ampicillin and benzylpenicillin, but showed susceptibility to vancomycin, fusidic acid, gentamicin, linezolid, rifampicin, teicoplanin, tetracycline, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. A significant association (P < 0.05) was observed between all the isolates resistant to ampicillin and clindamycin in patients and healthy individuals. The antibiotic-resistant staphylococci are prevalent in the nasal cavity among healthy individuals and patients, and a statistically significant association exists between sources of bacterial isolates and antibiotic resistance. Keywords: Staphylococcus, Nasal cavity, Resistance, Patient