Ferreira CM, Filho RAAB, Ferreira GMA, de Lacerda MVG, de Oliveira CMC, de Souza Sampaio V, Silva LM, Pascoal AG, Ferreira WA. Molecular epidemiology of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus species in healthcare workers of a blood bank in the Brazilian Amazon.
BMC Microbiol 2021;
21:306. [PMID:
34736414 PMCID:
PMC8567558 DOI:
10.1186/s12866-021-02365-1]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2021] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Healthcare workers are susceptible to colonization by multiresistant bacteria, which can increase the risk of outbreaks.
METHODS
Samples were collected from the nasopharynx, hands, and lab coats of healthcare workers. The phenotypic identification was carried out using a VITEK®2 rapid test system. PCR tests for the mecA gene and the sequencing of the amplicons were performed. Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus phylogenies were reconstructed using the Bayesian inference.
RESULTS
A total of 225 healthcare workers participated in this study. Of these, 21.3% were male and 78.7% female. S. epidermidis and S.aureus showed high levels of resistance to penicillin, ampicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline and cefoxitin. The prevalence of methicillin resistant S. aureus was 3.16% and methicillin resistant S. epidermidis was 100%. Multilocus sequence typing identified 23 new S. epidermidis sequence types, and one new allele and sequence type for S. aureus. The frequency of methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis in nursing and hemotherapy technicians as a percentage of the total number of healthcare workers was 5.8-3.1%, while the frequency of methicillin resistant S. aureus in hemotherapy technicians and biomedics, as a percentage of the total number of healthcare workers was 4.2-8.9%%.
CONCLUSIONS
The healthcare workers at the city's blood bank, even when taking the necessary care with their hands, body and clothes, harbour methicillin-resistant S. aureus and S. epidermidis sequence types, which, as a potential source of multidrug resistant bacteria, can contribute to nosocomial infections among hematological patients.
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