Detection of Staphylococcus aureus From A Sample of Healthcare Workers in Azadi Teaching Hospital Kirkuk/ Iraq

Abstract

Background: Substances commonly touched by healthcare workers and patients in hospitals harbor probable pathogens and can produce communicable agents. This study aimed to detect the bacterial contamination (Staphylococcus aureus) of common hospital objects (nose and gloves) frequently touched by healthcare workers. Methods: A total of 70 samples were collected from different sites of the hospital the surface of the sterilized hand and swab nose from 35 healthcare, isolation, identification, and isolation was performed by standard microbiological techniques from 1^st, August 2022 to the end of January 2023. The culturized ability of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates was tested by a microtiter plate method. The bacterial samples were diagnosed based on the phenotypic characteristics of the growing colonies, as they depended on the colonies' shape, morphology, texture, and color. Frequency percent and chi-square were used to conduct the significant analysis at P-value ≤0.05. Results: Among 35 healthcare workers selected in the study sample the highest proportion was at age 20-29 years nearly two-thirds percent with mean±SD   (30±9.57), working on the first floor, most of them were males. Statistically, a significant association was reported between workplace and the age group (P-value<0.001), more than four-fifth of males showed a statistically significant association (P-value=0.004) with positive infected with staphylococcus aureus on their gloves. Conclusion: More than four-fifth of the healthcare workers in this study recorded positive Staphylococcus aureus from the nose and sterilized hand. Male healthcare workers showed the highest proportion of positive noses infected with staphylococcus aureus and females showed the highest proportion of the same bacteria on the gloves. An educational program is preferred to submit for healthcare workers continually and prevention techniques are obligated to prevent this problem.