H Sami Awayid - Institute of Technical, Middle Technical University, Suwaira, Iraq
S Qassim Mohammad - Institute of Technical, Middle Technical University, Baqubah, Iraq

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria are often multi-drug resistant, resulting in a high rate of treatment failure. This study aimed to identify the antibiotics resistance profile and molecular characteristics of MRSA strains isolated from patients' samples, including skin, wounds, and burns, which are the most common infections, and collected from hospitals. The samples included ۳۴ MRSA isolates gathered from January ۲۰۲۰ to September ۲۰۲۰. All isolates were tested using the Kirby-Bauer method to determine MRSA susceptibility against antibiotics using the minimum inhibitory concentration protocol and the E-test. The polymerase chain reaction was used for the detection of antibiotic resistance genes, including tetracycline, erythromycin, linezolid, gentamicin, rifampicin, ciprofloxacin, quinupristin-dalfopristin, clindamycin, and mecA. Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec (SCCmec) was determined by multilocus sequence typing of all isolates; accordingly, the findings indicated that the sensitivity of linezolid, quinupristin-dalfopristin, rifampin, daptomycin, and vancomycin differed. Moreover, multidrug resistance of MRSA was shown to be more than ۹۰% for penicillin and ۹۱.۱% for erythromycin. It was revealed that SCCmec III was resistant to at least four to five different antibiotics. ST۵۸۵ (۲.۹%), ST۲۴۰ (۸.۸%), ST۴۵ (۱۴.۷%), ST۲۲ (۱۷.۶%), and ST۲۳۹ (higher rate) were the five sequence types found in STs (۵۵.۸%). Finally, it was indicated that the emergence of MRSA in these Iraqi hospitals highlighted further research to better understand how the infection might be effectively controlled.

MRSA, MLST, resistance gene, SCCmec