ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY PROFILES OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS IN HOSPITAL ANGKATAN TENTERA TUANKU MIZAN (HATTM), MALAYSIA: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Abstract

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is a human pathogen causing a variety of diseases ranging from superficial skin and soft-tissue infections to life-threatening infections. Nowadays, the treatment has become complicated due to the emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). It is an established pathogen that causes hospital- and community-acquired infections worldwide. This study was a preliminary retrospective study involving S. aureus clinical isolates from Hospital Angkatan Tentera Tuanku Mizan (HATTM) for a period of 6 months (October 2018 until March 2019). Objectives: The study was conducted to determine the S. aureus antibiotic susceptibility profiles and its association with types of infection, gender, wards, age of patients and types of specimens.  Methods: Standard bacteriological method was used for S. aureus isolation from various clinical specimens including blood, urine, pus and wound, eye, throat, nasal, pericardial fluid, tracheal aspirate, high vagina swab (HVS), bronchial alveolar lavage (BAL) and tissue. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was utilized for antibiotic susceptibility profiles determination. Results: Ninety-five S. aureus strains were isolated from 3571 specimens. Twenty-six of the isolates (27%) was identified as MRSA and 69 (73%) was identified as methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA). Among the MRSA, 4 isolates were hospital-acquired MRSA (HA-MRSA) and the rest were community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA). There was a statistically significant association between isolation of MRSA with age of patient as well as types of infection or origin of the MRSA (p<0.05).  Only 42 (44.2%) of the S. aureus isolates were fully susceptible to all antibiotics. Almost half isolates (n=46, 48.4%) were resistant to at least two antibiotics and seven (7.4%) isolates were resistant to one type of antibiotic only. Conclusions: None of the isolate showed reduced susceptibility nor resistant to vancomycin. Future study with a larger sample size using a wider study period needs to be done to confirm that vancomycin-resistant S. aureus has not yet been established in HATTM.