Prevalence of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Khartoum Teaching Hospital and the Role of Disinfectants in Infection Control

Abstract

Hospitals’ unit surfaces and environment may become contaminated by bacterial pathogens especially Methiccilin Resistance Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The organism was considered a major health problem in hospitals worldwide. The use of disinfectants is essential in infection control in hospitals and health care centers. This study was carried out in Khartoum Teaching Hospital (KTH) during the period from October 2007 to August 2008 to determined prevalence of MRSA in KTH and the role of four disinfectants[Sodium Hypochlorite (Clorox)+Water, Phenol+ Liquid soap + Chloroxylenol "Dettol", Formalin + Water and Chloroxylenol solution (Dettol) + Liquid soap Water] in controlling infections . Two hundred and fifty samples were collected by swabs from units' surfaces (walls, seats, tables, floor, medical devices, doors and windows). Eighteen air samples were also investigated by using settle plate method. The samples were cultured on blood agar for primary isolation. Identification of MRSA was done by colonial morphology, Gram stain, biochemical tests and test for resistance to methicillin and to vancomycin. The disc diffusion method and In-Use test were used to evaluate the effective of the four disinfectants against MRSA. Results revealed that the MRSA was 66(25%). Among them 11(16%) were vancomycin resistant. Moreover, the study on the effective of disinfectants by using SPSS program (One way ANOVA) showed that the F-calculated is bigger than F-tabulated (sig.) there are different in efficiency among disinfectants. In the L.S.D test shown there are two of these disinfectants (Sodium Hypochlorite (Clorox) +Water, Phenol+ Liquid soap + Chloroxylenol "Dettol") were less effective that the other (Formalin + Water and Chloroxylenol solution (Dettol) + Liquid soap Water). The study concluded that the prevalence of MRSA in KTH was high and the rate of VRSA is increasing. The disinfectants used routinely in KTH were not equal in their efficiency and there is failure in actions in two of them.