MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF PANTON VALENTINE LEUKOCIDIN (PVL) GENE IN METICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS (MRSA) ISOLATED FROM HEALTH WORKERS AT TISHREEN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, SYRIA

Lama Doya*, Haissam Yazigi and Youssef Zreik

ABSTRACT

MRSA poses a major threat to hospital patients as it can be transmitted from health care workers who are asymptomatic carriers of the bacteria. MRSA causes serious infections with a high mortality rate and increases the rate of nosocomial infections, requiring longer hospitalizations and greater use of antibiotics in high-risk hospital units. There is another factor no less important than MRSA, which is PVL. PVL has been associated epidemiologically with virulent and transmissible strains of Staphylococcus aureus. Studies have reported the role of PVL in various deadly diseases, including skin and soft tissue infections, boils, skin abscesses, necrotizing pneumonia, and osteomyelitis. To date, nothing is known about the extent of the prevalence of MRSA among health care workers in Syria in general and in our hospital in particular, and it is not known if there are cases of Positive PVL MRSA among health care workers. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Positive PVL MRSA among health care workers in Intensive care unit t in Tishreen University Hospital, Syria. Methods: 06 nasal swabs taken from healthcare workers in the intensive care unit were examined, regardless of age and gender. The presence of Staphylococcus aureus was detected by traditional methods, then an antibiotic susceptibility test was performed using the Kirby-Bauer method to isolate MRSA. PCR was performed to molecularly detect the PVL gene among the MRSA samples. Results: Among 60 nasal swabs from asymptomatic healthcare workers working in the ICU, there were 24 (40%) samples identified as Staphylococcus aureus, of which 20 samples (83.3%) were MRSA. The number of MRSA samples that tested positive for PVL 8 was 40%. Conclusion: Screening for the presence of MRSA should be conducted among health care workers because they may be the cause of transmission of infection with highly virulent strains of PVL positive MRSA.

Keywords: MRSA, PVL gene, Health care workers, PCR, intensive care unit.