Date of Submission
5-16-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Advisor
Nikolas Stasulli, Ph.D
Keywords
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Health Care Centers
MeSH
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus aureus
LCSH
Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus aureus infections, Health facilities
Abstract
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a group of pathogenic bacterial strains resistant to a class of antibiotics that is a major cause for concern in health care systems. There is a lack of study in whether health care centers are reservoirs for these bacteria, especially within developed countries. Five environmental swab samples were collected from five different university health care centers across the region, and 16 swab samples from a general university environment. Any isolated bacterial strains collected underwent five biochemical tests (mannitol fermentation, DNase activity, oxidase activity, catalase activity, and coagulase activity) to preliminarily identify S. aureus bacteria. 24% of the clinical samples and 25% of environmental samples contained S. aureus, signifying an equal distribution of the species among the two location groups. In addition, extensive literature review showed how isolated S. aureus strains can easily be characterized as MRSA, through antibiotic disc-diffusion testing and genetic sequencing of the potential SCCmec region. This genetic sequencing can also identify SCCmec type and class, identifiers useful in comparison to current MRSA studies.
Recommended Citation
Teixeira, Antonio, "Phenotypic Analysis of S. aureus strains from University Student Health Centers and Environmental Controls" (2020). Honors Theses. 28.
https://digitalcommons.newhaven.edu/honorstheses/28