Multidrug drug resistance in Staphylococcus aureus isolates from Clinical Specimens in Northern India

Staphylococcus aureus is a well-known human pathogen that is primarily associated with nosocomial infections causing variety of diseases with increasing resistance to antibiotics. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence and multi drug resistance patterns of both methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and methicillin susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) in the studied population. Out of 60 S. aureus isolated, 27 (45.00%) were found to be methicillin resistant, while 33 (57.14%) were methicillin susceptible. The incidence of MRSA in different samples was recorded with maximum in pus (55.55%), followed by wound swabs (50.00%), urine (45.95%) ear swab and blood samples (25.00%) each. MRSA isolates showed marked antibiotic resistance (over 70.00%) against oxacillin, penicillin, nalidixic acid, ampicillin, amoxicillin, and cefpodoxime. All MRSA isolates were foundto bemultidrug resistant with 14.81% isolates showing resistant to 14 drugs. The MSSA isolates tested were also highly resistant to penicillin (81.00%), ampicillin (90.00%), and amoxicillin (88.00%) with 6.06% isolates showing multi drug resistance to maximum of 11 antibiotics tested.   Key words: Multi drug resistance, study, Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA), methicillin susceptible S. aureus (MSSA), clinical specimens, Northern India.