PHAGE-TYPING AND ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANCE OF STAPHYLOCOCCI ISOLATED IN A GENERAL HOSPITAL

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various sources in a hospital, from March, 1953, to March, 1954, were phage-typed and tested for sensitivity to seven antibiotics. Of the dressings from 1400 clean operations, 15.7% were found to contain S. aureus and 8% of the postoperative wounds were clinically infected. Of 516 cultures, 95.4% were typable with the 32 phages used. Group III strains were predominant in the cultures from the patients and showed a higher degree of resistance to many of the antibiotics than did the strains of Groups I, II, and IV or the strains isolated from student nurses on starting their training, before exposure to the hospital environment. While a high proportion of strains in the hospital were resistant to the more commonly used antibiotics, penicillin, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, and streptomycin, very few strains were resistant to erythromycin, chloramphenicol, or neomycin. A new phage type '81', the causative agent of 50% of the boils and abscesses investigated, was discovered. This has been found to be a common strain in Canadian hospitals and its similarity to the Australian hospital strain '80' is pointed out.