Epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus infections and nasal carriage at the Ibn Rochd University Hospital Center, Casablanca, Morocco

infections caused by staphylococcus aureus are a major problem in hospitals. the multidrug resistance and the nasal carriage of s. aureus play a key role in the epidemic of these infections. in this prospective study, 160 s. aureus strains were isolated from pathological samples of patients (79 cases) and nasal swabs (81) of cases and controls from january to july 2007. the susceptibility to 16 antibiotics, including cefoxitin, was determined by the agar diffusion method, and methicillin resistance was confirmed by amplifying the meca gene by polymerase chain reaction (pcr). the prevalence of methicilin-resistant s. aureus (mrsa) was high in the burns (57.7%) and dermatology (39.4%) wards, and the mrsa strains isolated were extremely multi-resistant, but all of them were still susceptible to vancomycin. the rate of s. aureus nasal carriage was high in both cases and controls, in state, mrsa nasal carriage was more common among people infected with s. aureus.