Prevalence of Staphylococcus species in human cutaneous abscesses and naso carrieers [Sudan]

One hundred Sudanese patients with cutaneous abscesses were included in this study. Specimens were taken from the abscesses after surgical incision as well as from the anterior nares of the same patients. The abscesses (100) showed the following: Twenty abscesses did not give any growth of Staphylococcus -ninteen were negative for any growth, while only one showed growth of klebsiella. In remaining 80 abscesses all of them gave growth for Staphylococcus (80). Out of the 80 abscesses, 4 (5) abscesses gave more than one species of Staphylococcus (two species), while eight abscesses gave mixed infection of Staphylococcus. One hundred specimens taken from the anterior nares of the same patients with abscesses showed the following: Ten specimens gave no growth of bacteria. In the remaining 90 specimens, all of them gave growth of Staphylococcus species (90). Out of these 90 specimens, 11 (12.22) gave more than one species of Staphylococcus (two species), while 16 (17.77) specimens gave mixed infection of Staphylococcuss and Streptococcus. The highest rate of staphylococci species was found in the abscesses formed in the face (25) followed by fingers 16.6, feet (10.7), breasts (7.1), butttocks (5.9) and hands (5.9). In this study, the predominant Staphylococcus species was S.aureus which constiuted 96 isolates. Out of them 59.37 were from abscesses and 40.62 were from anterior nares; S. epidermidis, which constiuted 44 isolates, (34.09) of them were from abscesses and (65.9) were from anterior nares. Staphylococcus lugdunesis was also constiuted 17 isolates, (29.41) of them were from abscesses and 70.58 were from anterior nares. In this study we were able to isolate and identify 11 species and one sub species of the genus Staphylococcus from abscesses and anterior nares of the patients studied. All the 11 species and the sub species were isolated from cutaneous abscesses except, S.capitis, S.warneri and S.intermedius, which were isolated from anterior nares only. Thirty percent of the patients with cutaneous abscesses in this study were found to be carriers of Staphylococci viz:S. aureus 80; S.epidermidis 13.33, and S.lugdunensis (6.66). The incidence of cutaneous abscesses in this study was higher in males (72) than in females (28). The age ranged between one years to 65 years. The most suceptible age was 25 years. Our study showed that the sensitivity of staphylococci to various antibiotics (26Types) differed from one species to another, but all the species isolated in this study were resistant to penicillin. On the other hand, only S. capitis and S.saccharolyticus were sensitive to all the antibitoics which were used in this study except penicllin.