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Oxacillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus among HIV infected and non-infected Kenyan patients.

BACKGROUND
Infections due to methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) present global challenges to clinicians since therapeutic options are limited and suboptimal dosing contributes to heightened mortality and increased length of hospital stay particularly among the HIV infected patients.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the prevalence and relative risk of MRSA infections in HIV infected patients.


DESIGN
Cross sectional analytical study.


SETTING
Kenya Medical Research Institute, Opportunistic Infection Laboratories in Nairobi.


SUBJECTS
Four hundred and thirty six male and female patients aged one to 65 years, of whom 220 were HIV-infected and 216 were non-infected.


RESULTS
There was 436 male (57.1%) and female (42.9%) respondents. The prevalence of MRSA was 26.3% with majority infecting the HIV infected patients (P=0.046). Likewise, the overall Staphylococcal infections were more common in HIV patients (P <0.001). The common test for MRSA oxacillin disk diffusion had a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 92%.


CONCLUSION
HIV is a predisposing factor to Staphylococcal infection and there are indications that treatment with beta-lactam antibiotics may no longer be relied on as sole empiric therapy for several ill HIV patients whose infections may be of MRSA in origin. There is need for an informed choice in administration of appropriate antibiotics in order to minimise treatment failures due to the multidrug resistance and Vanvomycin intermediate S. aureus (VISA) strains. Molecular epidemiology of MRSA strains in understanding new and emerging trends is recommended.