Detection of methicillin resistant and toxin-associated genes in Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a problem in both healthcare institutions and community settings. This is due to its multi-drug resistant challenges. Hence, this study assessed the prevalence of methicillin resistant gene (mecA), exfoliative toxin (eta and etb) and toxic shock syndrome (tsst-1) genes in S. aureus isolated from clinical samples. A total of 120 clinical samples of patients (urine, high vagina swab (HVS), semen, wound swab, sputum and urethral swab) from a hospital laboratory were obtained. S. aureus was isolated and then identified with API-staph kit. Antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates was determined by agar diffusion while PCR was used to detect the presence of mecA and toxin-associated genes. Fifty S. aureus isolates were obtained at frequencies of 26(52%), 12(24%), 4(8%), 3(6%), 3(6%) and 2(4%) from the HVS, urine, semen, wound, sputum and urethral swab samples respectively. All the isolates of S. aureus were resistant to the antibiotics used in this study. MecA, tsst-1, eta and etb were detected in 19(38%), 7(14%), 3(6%) and 2(4%) of the isolates respectively. The prevalence of MRSA and its resistance pattern observed in this study was a signal that the health-care workers and the general public are at risk.