Nasal Carriage and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Staphylococcus aureus among Breastfeeding Mothers and their Infants

Abstract

Most S. aureus infections are multidrug resistant. S. aureus infections often occur with prolonged conditions, causing increased treatment costs and mortality rates. There is a need to understand the antibiotic susceptibility pattern to S. aureus in mothers and infants because the burden of S. aureus infection in infants is high. This study aims to determine the prevalence of nasal carriers of S. aureus in lactating mothers and their infants and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns. This cross-sectional study involved 59 pairs of breastfeeding mothers and infants aged 0 to 6 months. The research was conducted in the work area of the South Tangerang City Health Office. We take a nasal swab of the mother and the baby. We used Vitek-2 to determine antibiotic resistance against S. aureus. Overall, we found 22/59 (37%) S. aureus in infants’ noses, 18% of whom were MRSA. In mothers, we found 18/59 (30%) S. aureus isolates and 17% were MRSA. The majority of S. aureus isolates from infants were sensitive to cefoxitin (82%), gentamicin (86%), ciprofloxacin (91%), levofloxacin (95%), moxifloxacin (91%), vancomycin (100%), clindamycin (82%), erythromycin (86%), nitrofurantoin (100%), linezolid (100%) and tetracycline (77%). The majority of S. aureus isolates from mothers are sensitive to cefoxitin (83%), gentamicin (94%), ciprofloxacin (89%), levofloxacin (89%), moxifloxacin (89%), vancomycin (100%), clindamycin (89%), erythromycin (89%), nitrofurantoin (100%), linezolid (100%) and tetracycline (83%). MRSA monitoring of mothers and babies in the community needs to be done to prevent and control the spread.