Are Medical Students and Interns at Risk of Acquiring Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)?

Authors

  • Christy Vijay St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India
  • Pretesh R Kiran St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India
  • Savitha Nagaraj St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India
  • N S Srikanth St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India
  • Rajitha K St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India

Keywords:

MRSA, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, nasal swab, medical students, interns

Abstract

Introduction: MRSA is conventionally considered as a nosocomial pathogen (though of late it is seen in the community). It is a pathogen which can infect patients and be carried innocuously, most commonly on the hands and for a longer duration in the anterior nares. This study was done on Medical Students and Interns in a medical college in India to check if they colonised with MRSA.. The risk factors among the subjects were found to be low.

Objectives: This study was aimed at finding the prevalence of Nasal carriers of MRSA and contributing risk factors among Medical Students and Interns.

Methods: This was a cross sectional study. The study group included medical students and interns above the age of 18 years. The study involved 150 medical students and interns. The students who participated in the study were 30 each from the first year to interns.

Results: One subject was found to be positive for MRSA.

Conclusion: From the study it was concluded that the prevalence of MRSA among medical students was low. It was also noticed that students were aware of the need for good hygiene practices.

References

Dakshika Jeyaratnam, Anna Gottlieb, Uchechukwu Ajoku, Gary French. Validation of the IDI-MRSA (TM) system for use on pooled nose, axilla, and groin swabs and single swabs from other screening sites. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease 2008; 61(1):1-5.

H. F. Chambers. The changing epidemiology of Staphylo-coccus aureus? Emerg Infect Dis. 2001; 7(2): 178-182.

Timothy R. Peters, Dudley E. Hammon, Rima J. Jarrah, Elizabeth L. Palavecino, Elizabeth S. Blakeney, and Kath-erine A. Poehling, “Staphylococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome Complicating Influenza A Infection in a Young Child,” ISRN Pulmonology, vol. 2011, Article ID 645718, 3 pag-es, 2011. doi:10.5402/2011/645718

Som S Chatterjee, Michael Otto. Improved understanding of factors driving methicillin resistant Staphylococcus au-reus epidemic waves. ClinEpidemiol. 2013; 5: 205-217.

M R, D’Souza M, Kotigadde S, Saralaya K V, Kotian M S. Prevalence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Carriage amongst Health Care Workers of Critical Care Units in Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Mangalore, India. J ClinDiagn Res. 2013; 7(12):2697-700.

Eveillard M, Martin Y, Hidri N, Boussougant Y, Joly-Guillou ML. Carriage of Methicillin-resistant Staphylo-coccus aureus among hospital employees: prevalence, duration, and transmission to households. Infect Control HospEpidemiol. 2004; 25(2):114-20.

Treesirichod A, Hantagool S, Prommalikit O. Nasal car-riage and antimicrobial susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus among medical students at the HRH Princess MahaChakriSirindhorn Medical Center, Thailand: a fol-low-up study. J Infect Public Health. 2014; 7(3):205-9.

Cirkovic I, Djukic S, Vukovic D, Stevanovic G, Svabic-Vlahovic M, Stepanovic S. Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among medical students of Belgrade University. SrpArhCelokLek. 2013; 141(5-6):349-53.

Xiao Xue Ma, Dan Dan Sun, Si Wang, Mei Lian Wang, Miao Li, Hong Shang, et al. Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among preclinical medi-cal students: epidemiologic and molecular characteristics of methicillin-resistant S, aureus clones 2011; 70 (1): 22-30.

Charles Bellows, Alison Smith, Jean Wheeler, Lisa Morici. Nasal Carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among students at a Louisiana medical Universi-ty. Brazillian Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2013; 17(1):118-9.

Nagamadhavi V, Samatha P. Assessing the Prevalence of Staphylococcus Aureus, Particularly MRSA, from Ante-rior Nares of Medical Students. Indian J Microbiol Res 2016; 3(1):22-23.

Downloads

Published

2016-07-31

How to Cite

1.
Vijay C, Kiran PR, Nagaraj S, Srikanth NS, Rajitha K. Are Medical Students and Interns at Risk of Acquiring Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)?. Natl J Community Med [Internet]. 2016 Jul. 31 [cited 2024 Nov. 29];7(07):573-6. Available from: https://njcmindia.com/index.php/file/article/view/1007

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles