Biofilm formation and resistance to methicillin are among the factors that make Staphylococcus aureus a very important human pathogen in both health-care and community settings. This study investigated methicillin-resistance among biofilm-producing S. aureus isolated from orthopaedic patients. Over a period of 3 months, 49 orthopaedic patients were recruited into this study. From these patients, wound swabs, nasal swabs, bed swabs and urine samples were collected from each patient, amounting to 189 samples. The samples were screened to isolate S. aureus. Using the micro-titer plate method, these isolates were screened for biofilm production and the biofilm-producing isolates were tested for phenotypical detection of methicillin-resistance using 30µg cefoxitin disc. PCR was used to detect presence of mecA gene in the methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates. From the samples collected, 28 were Staphylococcus aureus and 96.4% of the S. aureus isolates were biofilm-producers, from which we had 66.7% weak biofilm-producers, 11.1% strong biofilm-producers and 22.2% moderate biofilm-producers. Phenotypically, 67.9% of the biofilm-producing S. aureus were methicillin-resistant. However, only 15.8% among the MRSA isolates has the mecA gene. Therefore, MRSA among biofilm-producing S. aureus is a potential threat primarily to the community of National Orthopaedic Hospital Dala and a major public health challenge.
Key words: Biofilm, Methicillin-resistance Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), mecA gene, Orthopaedic patients
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