Archives of Clinical Infectious Diseases
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important causes of nosocomial infections and most clinical isolates are multidrug resistant. Resistance to ?-lactam antibiotics is most often due to bacterial ?-lactamase production. Characterization of ?-lactamases is important for choosing appropriate antibiotic therapy.
Thirty methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were identified by standard biochemical methods. Antibacterial susceptibility to 9 ?-lactam antibiotics was determined. ?-lactamase production was shown in all isolates using the colony iodometric test and nitrocefin discs. ?-lactamase typing was carried out by measuring the relative substrate hydrolysis rates.
The MRSA isolates were resistant to the majority of ?-lactam antibiotics. The results showed that 90% of the isolates displayed type A substrate hydrolysis profile of ?-lactamase.
The alarming high level of resistance to ?-lactam antibiotics including methicillin and 3rd generation ?-lactams show the need for extensive studies on alternative treatment protocols and use of new drugs
© 2009, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
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