Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-resistant S. aureus in Adult Hospitalized Patients in “Mother Theresa” Hospital Center in Albania

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in clinical specimens hospitalized to “Mother Theresa” Hospital Center for 2 years. METHODS: We isolated and identified S. aureus on 356 clinical specimens using standard tests. Furthermore, for further accurate microbial identification, we have to use the VITEK® 2 system. The samples were tested to detect the presence of MRSA by a slide latex agglutination kit for the rapid detection of PBP2. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of S. aureus in patients was 34.2%. The prevalence of MRSA was 20.5% of cases. Of the MRSA isolates identified in this study, 28% were susceptible to antibiotics, 24% demonstrated intermediate resistance, and 48% were multi-drug resistant with resistance to nineteen antibiotics involved in the examination. In addition, seven of the 25 MRSA cases showed 100% resistance to norfloxacin, imipenem, meropenem, levofloxacin, etc. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of S. aureus in hospitalized patients on this study was 34.2% and the MRSA 20.5%. These results indicated that this type of infection is a significant concern for health services and patients included. A screening of all hospitalized cases can lead to reduce the incidence of this infection in the hospital environment.