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Characterisation of Staphylococcus haemolyticus isolated from urinary tract infections
1Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Objective:
To determine some virulence factors and antimicrobial susceptibilities of Staphylococcus haemolyticus from urinary tract infections.
Design:
This was a laboratory based cross sectional study on S. haemolyticus isolates from urinary tract infections.
Setting:
College of Health Sciences in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Subjects:
People of all ages with urinary tract infections presenting at health centres in Harare.
Main Outcomemeasures:
Prevalence of virulence factors and antimicrobial susceptibilities of S. haemolyticus isolates.
Results:
Deoxyribonuclease (DNase) was produced by 91.8%, delta-haemolysin by 75.5% and slime by 32.7% of the 49 S. haemolyticus isolates. Less than 10% of the isolates produced lipase, alpha haemolysin and protease. All the S. haemolyticus isolates were sensitive to vancomycin and 79.6% to clindamycin. Over 70% of the isolates were resistant to chloramphenicol, co-trimoxazole, erythromycin, oxacillin, ampicillin and penicillin G. Multi-drug resistance to five or more drugs was observed in 69.4% of the isolates. Twenty nine of the 37 isolates that produced delta-haemolysin showed multi-drug resistance.
Conclusions:
The virulence factors produced by many S. haemolyticus were DNase and delta-haemolysin. Most of the isolates were resistant to many antimicrobial drugs.
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