Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a Rural Area of India : Is MRSA Replacing Methicillin-Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in the Community?

Abstract EN

Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is the most common cause of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) and nosocomial infections.

In developed countries there is a major concern about the rise of community-associated methicillin-resistant SA (CA-MRSA), but data from developing countries are scarce.

In this study we describe the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of CA-MRSA and healthcare-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) in a district hospital from rural India.

We identified 119 CA-SA infections and 82 HA-SA infections.

The majority of infections were SSTI, and the proportion of MRSA in CA-SA and HA-SA infections was 64.7% and 70.7%, respectively.

The proportion of CA-MRSA in children <5 years was 73.7%.

We did not observe any linezolid or vancomycin resistance.

CA-SA had high levels of resistance to ciprofloxacin and low levels of resistance to chloramphenicol, doxycycline, rifampicin, and clindamycin.

CA-MRSA had higher proportion of resistance to ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, gentamicin, and cotrimoxazole than CA methicillin-susceptible SA (CA-MSSA).

HA-MRSA had higher proportion of resistance to clindamycin and doxycycline than CA-MRSA.

The results of this study indicate that MRSA is replacing MSSA in CA-SA infections.

If these findings are confirmed by other studies, the spread of CA-MRSA can be a major public health problem in India.