Staphylococcus aureus virulence genes and methicillin-resistant gene detection and antimicrobial resistance profiles isolated from different infection sites

Background One of the most significant pathogenic bacteria is Staphylococcus aureus, and both adults and children are susceptible to this bacterium from the front of the nose. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 80,461 invasive methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections and 11 285 related deaths occurred in 2011. In the UK, around 190 people passed away from MRSA disease in 2021. Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Greece also have MRSA infections, along with the whole world. MRSA caused less than 2% of bacterial diseases in the United States in 1974, while the percentage rate jumped to 64% in 2004 only 10 years to increase the infection rate by 300%. Objective This study aimed to detect medication susceptibility patterns, staphylococcal enterotoxins A to C, toxic shock syndrome toxin-1, and methicillin-resistant genes. Materials and methods Ninety-eight S. aureus strains were isolated from different infection sites from Salah Al-Din Teaching Hospital. There have only been a few studies conducted on the epidemiology and virulence genes of S. aureus in Salah Al-Din city, Iraq. Results and conclusion The rates of drug resistance among S. aureus strains to routinely used antibiotics were found to be extremely high. In this study, the expression of toxic shock syndrome toxin, sec B, and sec C genes in S. aureus strains was not detected, unlike in previous studies. While all the strains were sec A gene positive, another gene found in bacterial cells that enables them to be resistant to antibiotics like methicillin and other vancomycin drugs is mecA.