Clindamycin Resistance Among Staphylococcus Aureus Isolated at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, in South Western Uganda

Aims: The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Clindamycin (CL) resistance and antimicrobial susceptibility among clinical isolates of () from Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) in Southwestern Uganda.

Study Design: Laboratory based cross sectional study.

Place And Duration Of The Study: The study was conducted at the Microbiology department of Mbarara Regional referral hospital between November 2012 and December 2013.

Methodology: In our study, we recruited 300 isolates that were stored in the laboratory and were obtained from different clinical samples. The isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility by phenotypic methods and for the genotypic expression of Macrolide Lincosamide StreptograminB (MLS) resistance genes (, , , and ). The D-test was also performed.

Results: Phenotypically, a total of 109 (36%) isolates were resistant to CL, of which 9 (3%) were constitutively resistant while 100 (33.3%) were inducibly resistant. Genotypicaly, 134/300 (44.7%) isolates possessed at least one of the MLS resistance genes. 23/300 (7.7%) tested positive for , 98/300 (32.7%) tested positive for the and 43/300 (14.3%) tested positive for the genes with none possessing the gene. Isolates were highly resistant to Sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, Erythromycin and Oxacillin with moderate resistance to Vancomycin and Imipenem and least resistance to Linezolid.

Conclusion: resistance to CL was high in this set up. There was also high resistance to Sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, Erythromycin and Oxacillin but low resistance to Linezolid.