Detection of Staphylococcus aureus’s Strain Similarity on Surgical Ward Nurses’s Hand and Nose and Post Operative Wound Infection Using Coa Gene Through PCR-RFLP Method

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) remains to be the most important cause of post operative wound infection. Nurses
could become reservoirs to transmit S.aureus through contaminated hands transiently, or through colonized nose.
Strain polymorphism could be determined by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), using coa gene and
restriction endonuclease enzyme Alu1. There were 30 isolates of S.aureus’s infection, and 20 isolates taken from hands
and nose of the nurses in charge. From 50 isolate positive S.aureus, PCR results showed single and multiple bands
within 300 to 900 base pairs (bp) in length, and multiple bands within 200 to 600 bp. Five out of 30 patients (17%)
showed no PCR-RFLP similarity with any of the nurses. Ten out of 15 nurses which hands were positive for S.aureus,
has PCR-RFLP similarity with some patients. There was only 1 out of 5 nurses which nose was positive for S.aureus,
showed PCR-RFLP similarity with some patients. Statistically, the proportion of the similar PCR-RFLP between those
samples in this study is 0.12 (12%). Conclusion: Nurses had 12 % PCR-RFLP similarity for S.aureus with post operative
wound infection.