A comparison of Hospital and Community acquired Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in a tertiary care hospital

Objectives: Traditionally, MRSA infections occurred exclusively in hospitals namely Hospital-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (HA-MRSA).Recently however, community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has emerged in young individuals without risk factors for MRSA acquisition.Prevalence of CA-MRSA and its susceptibility to antibiotics have shown geographic variability.Methods: This study aims to provide regionally specific information on the proportion of CA-MRSA cases.Thirty non-duplicate MRSA isolated from different specimens for a period of three months were included in the study.Antibiotic susceptibilities and the important risk factors for infection were studied.The Fisher's exact test was done to determine the statistical significance.Results: 16.67% of our isolates were community-acquired and 83.33% were hospital-acquired.CA-MRSA isolates were distinct from HA-MRSA by their susceptibility patterns and risk factors.Conclusions: Beta-lactam antibiotics are usually the first line antibiotics used to treat a staphylococcal infection.Awareness about the existence of MRSA in the community is a must as the commonly used beta lactams have no role in treatment of these staphylococcal infections.