CHARACTERIZATION OF Staphylococcus aureus ISOLATED FROM DOOR HANDLES IN NEW DANIEL HALL, MOUNTAIN TOP UNIVERSITY

Abstract

bacterium is its rapid dissemination to humans and through door handles. This research was done in order to investigate the incidence and prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus on door handles and the antibiotic susceptibility profile of the organism to a few popular antibiotics in New Daniel Hall, Mountain Top University. A total of 30 door swab samples were obtained, 15 from wing A and 15 from wing B. These were cultured on mannitol salt agar and identified using appropriate protocols. A total of 12 (40%) isolates were identified as Staphylococcus aureus as 7 (46.6%) was isolated from wing A and 5 (33.3%) was isolated from wing B. They were all subjected to antibiotic susceptibility test using the Kirby Bauer antibiotic disk susceptibility method on Mueller Hinton agar. An examination of the susceptibility to antibiotics showed Gentamicin, Erythromycin and Cefotaxime were the most powerful of all the 10 antibiotics used against the Staphylococcus aureus isolated. It was discovered that 12 (40%) of the multidrug resistant S. aureus isolates produced beta lactamase enzymes that are linked to resistance to beta lactam drugs. High resistance was evident in the isolates. to Cotrimoxazole (75%) and Tetracycline (75%), making them the least effective antibiotic to the isolates. The presence of multi -drug resistant S. aureus in this study emphasizes the need to formulate hygiene measures to prevent possible dissemination of S. aureus and other transmissible pathogens to students and staffs in the schools.