Prevalence of anterior nares colonization of Palestinian diabetic patients with Staphylococcus aureus or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an opportunistic pathogen that colonizes the anterior nares of about one-third of the human population. Anterior nares colonization with S. aureus or methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) allows these pathogens to colonize the skin and other anatomical locations. Accordingly, these pathogens may cause different types of endogenous infections. To investigate the prevalence of nasal carriage of S. aureus or MRSA among Palestinian diabetic patients, nasal swabs were taken from 151 diabetic patients, about to undergo invasive surgeries. Thirty-five patients (35.1% of the total patients) were found to be colonized with S. aureus, of which 14 (9.7% of the total patients) were found to be colonized with MRSA. These proportions were higher than those described for the general population (30% and 1.3%, respectively) or even for Palestinian patients in general (25.9% and 2%, respectively). In addition, the proportion of nasal carriage of S. aureus or MRSA among Palestinian diabetic patients was found to be higher than that described for diabetic patients in other countries. Meanwhile, 30 of the 53 isolates (57% of the total isolates) were also found to be multidrug-resistant. Accordingly, the proportion of anterior nares colonization with S. aureus or MRSA in Palestinian diabetic patients was remarkably high.