Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Pharmacy - Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be a global problem in infection control. Most of the countries in the Mediterranean region are experiencing a surge in MRSA infections. The highest proportions of MRSA were reported by Jordan, Egypt and cyprus investigators, where more than 50% of the invasive isolates were methicillin-resistant. The first aim of our work is to study the prevalence of MRSA in Egyptian hospitals as well as isolation and identification of MRSA from different infection sites, different hospitals and different hospital units around Egypt. The second aim is to study the antibiotic sensitivity of MRSA and grouping the isolates according to their resistance. One hundred and sixty six non-duplicate Staphylococcus aureus isolates were collected from different infection sites. The clinical isolates were recovered from blood (7.22%), throat swab (1.8%), pus (5.42%), skin (33.7%), surgical wound (31.9%), urine (9.63%), nasal swab (1.2%), sputum (9.03%). Only 73 isolates (43.9%) out of 166 were oxacillin resistant. All 166 isolates were catalase-positive, coagulase-positive and mannitol fermenting S. aureus. They were further identified by biochemical and analytical profile index (API) tests. Molecular identification was conducted by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with two different pairs of primers. First primers targeting 16S ribosomal RNA gene were used, followed by primers for the nuc gene, which produce an amplification products of ~395 bp. In addition, identification of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was performed by the amplification of 310 bp of the mecA gene, which encodes for of PBP2a, a protein that contributes to methicillin resistance

Issued also as CD