Antibiotic Sensitivity of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Patients Attending Ruiru District Hospital, Kenya August to November 2012

Aim: To determine the sensitivity of Staphylococcus aureus to commonly used antibiotics in patients with skin, soft tissue and upper respiratory tract infections.
Study Design: Cross sectional.
Place and Duration of Study: Samples were obtained from Ruiru District Hospital, Kenya between August and November 2012. The antibiotic sensitivity tests were done at the Laboratories of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology at Juja, Kenya.
Methodology: The study included 100 in and outpatients with infections on clinical diagnosis, cellulitis, wound infection, ulcers, septic bruises, abscess (including furuncle / boil / superficial skin abscess). A questionnaire was used to collect patient demographic data from patient records and cultures from the hospital laboratory collected and transported to the Jomo Kenyatta University Laboratories for identification of staphylococcal colonies by culture and biochemical tests. Disc diffusion test was used to determine in vitro antibiotic sensitivities of the S. aureus isolates as per the Kirby-Bauer diffusion technique.
Results: The results indicate that the isolates were very resistant (10% sensitivity) to methicillin and gentamycin, moderately resistant (less than 40% sensitivity) to morepenem, erythromycin, oxacilin, ampicilin, penicillin, trimethoprime/sulfamethoxazole and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid but sensitive to minocycline (83.3%). The isolates were also sensitive to cefuroxime, ciprofloxacin, chlorophenicol and lincomycin (75, 58.3, 50 and 41.6% sensitivity respectively). In this regard, antibiotics such as gentamycin, chloramphenical, trimethoprime / sulfamethoxazole and ampicillin, on the WHO and Kenyan essential drugs list are unlikely to offer help to the patients in Ruiru District hospital. Minocycline would thus be the antibiotic of choice against Staphylococcus infections followed by cefuroxime (75%) and ciprofloxacin (58.3%) as the next alternative drugs of choice.