Evaluation of MecA Gene Occurrence of Gram Positive Bacteria Isolated from Patients with Otitis

Otitis externa (OE) and Otitis media (OM) are two important diseases that affects a significant portion of the communinities in developing countries. The prevalance of otitis media and externa in Easthern Turkey, the proportion of the implicated bacteria that are Gram positive, and their antibiotics resistance profiles was investigated in this study. Ear swab samples were collected from 2000 patients (1000 women and 1000 men) at the Van Training and Research Hospital Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Turkey. The Patients were between the ages of 0 to 80 years. Microbiological analysis was carried out on the samples in the Pharmaceutical Microbiology laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Turkey. The presence of Gram positive bacteria was observed in 1,225 ear swab samples. Staphylococcus aureus was found to be the most common isolated bacterium in male and female patients with otitis. Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae were the second most common isolated bacteria, respectively, in male and female patients with otitis. Gram positive bacteria isolated from male patients with otitis showed the highest resistance to Cefoxitin, while those isolated from female patients with otitis showed the highest resistance to Erythromycin. Oxacilin resistance was determined for of the S. aureus isolates, of which 22 were from the male patients and 14 from the female patients. According to the results of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) the 36 isolates were positive for mecA gene. It is thought that the data obtained from this study will contribute to the elaboration of OE and OM diseases in the Easthern Region of Turkey.