ISOLATION AND SCREENING OF BETA-LACTAMASE PRODUCING STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS (MRSA) FROM CLINICAL SAMPLES

Ramakrishna D.*

ABSTRACT

Methicillin resistance Staphylococcus is pathogenic and is an important nosocomial organism. A study to investigate the multidrug resistance of Staphylococcus aureus to conventional antibiotics being frequently used in thes 8 often 12 isolates that produced beta lactamase were resistant to all the -lactam antibiotics used in this studies. This revealed that the resistance is purely plasmid based since -lactamase production is plasmid based. This contributes a lot to the level of multiple drug resistance as about 88% of the isolates show resistance to more than five antibiotics. The resistance however might suggest the role of mecA gene in the isolates.

Keywords: Staphylococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, mecA.