Species and drug susceptibility profiles of staphylococci isolated from healthy children in Eastern Uganda

Abstract

Staphylococci are a key component of the human microbiota, and they mainly colonize the skin and anterior nares. However, they can cause infection in hospitalized patients and healthy individuals in the community. Although majority of the Staphylococcus aureus strains are coagulase-positive, some do not produce coagulase, and the isolation of coagulase-positive non-S. aureus isolates in humans is increasingly being reported. Therefore, sound knowledge of the species and characteristics of staphylococci in a given setting is important, especially isolates from children and immunocompromised individuals. The spectrum of Staphylococcus species colonizing children in Uganda is poorly understood; here, we aimed to determine the species and characteristics of staphylococci isolated from children in Eastern Uganda. Seven hundred and sixty four healthy children less than 5 years residing in Iganga and Mayuge districts in Eastern Uganda were enrolled. A total of 513 staphylococci belonging to 13 species were isolated from 485 children (63.5%, 485/764), with S. aureus being the dominant species (37.6%, 193/513) followed by S. epidermidis (25.5%, 131/513), S. haemolyticus (2.3%, 12/513), S. hominis (0.8%, 4/513) and S. haemolyticus/lugdunensis (0.58%, 3/513). Twenty four (4.95%, 24/485) children were co-colonized by two or more Staphylococcus species. With the exception of penicillin, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates were low; all isolates were susceptible to vancomycin, teicoplanin, linezolid and daptomycin. The prevalence of methicillin resistance was 23.8% (122/513) and it was highest in S. haemolyticus (66.7%, 8/12) followed by S. aureus (28.5%, 55/193) and S. epidermidis (23.7%, 31/131). The prevalence of multidrug resistance was 20.3% (104/513), and 59% (72/122) of methicillin resistant staphylococci were multidrug resistant. Four methicillin susceptible S. aureus isolates and a methicillin resistant S. scuiri isolate were mupirocin resistant (high-level). The most frequent AMR genes were mecA, vanA, ant(4')-Ia, and aac(6')-Ie-aph(2'')-Ia, pointing to presence of AMR drivers in the community.

First Report of Multi-drug Resistant Staphylococcus haemolyticus in Nosocomial Infections in North Western Saudi Arabia

“…groin (95%, n = 9), axial (100%, n =1) and nasal cavity (1-%, n = 2) of hospitalized patients, some of the these isolates were resistant to about seven or eight antimicrobial classes, this is alarming given the possibility that these patients may act as a source of infection to health care personnel or source of contamination of hospital environment with these multiple resistant strains. The carriage of drug resistant Staphylococcus haemolyticus in the nares and skin of healthy as well as hospitalized individuals has been reported 24 .…”

Antibiotic resistance profiles and population structure of disease-associatedStaphylococcus aureusinfecting patients in Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, Western Uganda

“…5% (2/41) were resistant to antibiotics belonging to six different classes, and thus considered pan resistant. These levels of resistance and MDR are not unexpected; for example, Seni and colleagues [9] reported 21% of Gram-positive isolates from surgical site wounds of patients in Mulago Hospital, Kampala (Uganda) were MDR, whereas Kateete and colleagues [34] observed 31% of S. aureus isolates recovered from nasopharyx of children in rural Eastern Uganda were MDR. A study of post-operative sepsis cases in rural Eastern Uganda [35] reported 14% S. aureus isolates to be resistant to five different classes of antibiotics and 3% resistant to six different classes [35].…”

Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of staphylococci other than Staphylococcus aureus from domestic animals and livestock in Africa: a systematic review

“…S. chromogenes is a major cause of mastitis and subclinical mastitis in animals as seen in this review ( 21 , 56 , 57 , 66 , 75 , 76 , 84 , 90 , 106 ). However, no S. chromogenes infections were recorded in Botswana, Algeria, Ethiopia, Libya and Tanzania ( 42 , 46 , 58 – 62 , 64 , 70 , 73 , 87 , 93 , 120 ). The strain distribution could not be described due to the insufficient published data, but we were able to describe epidemiology of SOSA in terms of species distribution.…”