Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Nov;18(11):716-21.
doi: 10.4103/0972-5229.144013.

Mupirocin resistance in nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among healthcare workers of a tertiary care rural hospital

Dardi Charan Kaur  1 , Pandey Aastha Narayan  2
Affiliations

Mupirocin resistance in nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among healthcare workers of a tertiary care rural hospital

Dardi Charan Kaur et al. Indian J Crit Care Med. 2014 Nov.

Abstract

Introduction: Mupirocin (pseudomonic acid A) is a topical antimicrobial agent with excellent antistaphylococcal and antistreptococcal activity. A nasal formulation is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for eradicating nasal carriage in adult patients as well as in health care personnel. Resistance to mupirocin has already been reported worldwide. The increasing prevalence of mupirocin resistance among Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) species could be an important threat to the future use of mupirocin against methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Thus, this study was carried out to find the prevalence of mupirocin resistance in S. aureus and CoNS by disc diffusion and to determine the rates of high-level and low-level mupirocin resistance in S. aureus and CoNS by disc diffusion.

Materials and methods: A total of 140 healthcare workers (HCWs) (doctor, nursing staff, housekeeping staff) were randomly selected. S. aureus and CoNS isolates were tested for mupirocin resistance by the disk diffusion method using 5 μg and 200 μg mupirocin discs. MRSA isolates were tested for antibiotics by Kirby-Bauer disc-diffusion method as per Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines.

Results: Out of 140 nasal swabs collected from HCWs, S. aureus was isolated in 38 (27.14%), and CoNS was isolated in 73 (52.14%). MRSA was isolated in 20 (14.28%) and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococci (MRCoNS) in 34 (24.29%. Methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) and MSCoNS isolates were 100% sensitive to mupirocin, but two isolates from MRSA (1.43%) and five from MRCoNS (3.57%) were mupirocin resistant.

Conclusion: The presence of mupirocin resistance in MRSA and MRCoNS is a cause for concern. It could be limited by regular surveillance and effective infection control initiatives so to inform health care facilities to guide therapeutic and prophylactic use of mupirocin.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococci; mupirocin resistance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Mupirocin susceptible (b) Low-level resistance (c) High-level resistance
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Yazgi H, Ertek M, Ozbek A, Kadanali A. Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in hospital personnel and the normal population and antibiotic resistance of the isolates. Mikrobiyol Bul. 2003;37:137–42. - PubMed
    1. Sousa-Junior FC, Silva-Carvalho MC, Fernandes MJ, Vieira MF, Pellegrino FL, Figueiredo AM, et al. Genotyping of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained in the Northeast region of Brazil. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2009;42:877–81. - PubMed
    1. Heininger U, Datta F, Gervaix A, Schaad UB, Berger C, Vaudaux B, et al. Prevalence of nasal colonization with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in children a multicenter cross-sectional study. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2007;26:544–6. - PubMed
    1. Morange-Saussier V, Giraudeau B, van der Mee N, Lermusiaux P, Quentin R. Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in vascular surgery. Ann Vasc Surg. 2006;20:767–72. - PubMed
    1. Creech CB, 2nd, Kernodle DS, Alsentzer A, Wilson C, Edwards KM. Increasing rates of nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in healthy children. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2005;24:617–21. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources