Abstract
The spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA) is a major concern in medical centers. These isolates are
considered in serious infections and nosocomial outbreaks worldwide. Mupirocin is one of the
most important antibiotics used topically for the treatment of various
staphylococcal and streptococcal skin infections. We aimed to use a combination of phenotypic
and genotypic methods to evaluate the prevalence of mupirocin resistance among
MRSA clinical isolates which had previously been collected during the period 2008-2009 in Shiraz, Iran. Methods: This
study was performed on a total of 167 clinical isolates of MRSA from Shiraz teaching hospitals. The isolates were
identified as S.
aureus using standard microbiologic procedures and
confirmed as MRSA isolates
by 30 μg cefoxitin discs and mecA gene detection. All isolates
were investigated for the mupirocin resistance by mupirocin discs 5 µg and the presence of mupA gene
by PCR. Results:
Antibacterial susceptibility tests against mupirocin disc 5 µg and PCR analysis for totally
167 MRSA clinical isolates showed no resistance to
mupirocin. Conclusion:
In summary, fortunately regarding to absence of resistance to mupirocin among
all the studied MRSA isolates, this resistance seems is not a threatening
factor in studied hospitals. However, generalized our findings to whole
hospitals wards and Shiraz general population afford larger sample size and
periodic surveillance in further studies for detecting mupirocin resistance.