Plasmid profile of multi antibiotic resistant <i>staphylococcus aureus</i> isolated from diabetic wounds from patients at Nsukka, South-eastern, Nigeria

Abstract

Multi-drug resistant bacterial strains evolving worldwide has created a great public health problem that needs urgent attention; as such bacteria show resistance to the drug of choice for treatment as well as being resistant to newer and last line antibiotics. In this study, the antibiotic susceptibility, multi antibiotic resistance (MAR) index and plasmid profile of MDR Staphylococcus aureus isolated from diabetic wounds of patients presenting at Renaissance hospital Nsukka, Southeast, Nigeria were investigated. Using basic bacteriological and biochemical techniques, S. aureus was isolated from all 34 specimens and 19 of these showed multi-drug resistances to most of the commonly prescribed antibiotics in the region, with methicillin and vancomycin inclusive. The 19 MDR isolates were screened for the presence of plasmids as well as calculating the multi-antibiotic resistance (MAR) index. The results show the presence of plasmids in 18 (94.73%) of the specimens; while there was no plasmid in one. The plasmids varied in the range of their molecular sizes and nine different plasmid profile groups were identified ranging between 4946 (bp) to 12130 (bp). For the 19 MDR isolates, the calculated MAR index was greater than 0.2. The findings from this study show that 56% of the isolated S. aureus were not susceptible to current antibiotics. This could suggest an imminent change in resistant pattern as observed, particularly in an area already reported as high antibiotic use.  

Keyword: Staphylococcus aureus, susceptibility, antibiotic resistance, plasmids, diabetic wound.

African Journal of Biotechnology, Vol 13(43) 4148-4154