Staphylococcus aureus infections and antibiotic resistance patterns at the Department of Infectious Diseases of Ibn Rochd University Hospital, Casablanca: A three-year retrospective study

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most frequent bacterial pathogens involved in both community-acquired and healthcare-associated infections. The emergence of methicillin-resistant strains (MRSA) is a major public health concern, especially in high-risk hospital wards. In Morocco, local data remain limited and the surveillance is not standardized at the national level. This study concerned patients followed at the Department of Infectious Diseases of Ibn Rochd University Hospital, in whom S. aureus was isolated at the Bacteriology Laboratory of the same hospital. 59 isolates from 42 patients were compiled over a three-year period (January 2019 to December 2021). The mean age was 46 years, with a male predominance (sex ratio 2.2). MRSA was identified in 15.3% of samples. The most active antibiotics were rifampin (5% resistance), clindamycin (7%), gentamicin (8%) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (9%). The highest resistance rates were observed for tetracycline (50%) and fusidic acid (44%). MRSA isolates showed substantially higher co-resistance rates than MSSA, particularly for tetracycline (100% vs 44%), fusidic acid (86% vs 33%) and chloramphenicol (80% vs 12%). All MRSA strains were isolated from non-sterile sites; no MRSA was detected in sterile-site samples. Our findings are consistent with recent Moroccan data, lower than figures reported in some Tunisian centers, and within the range observed in southern European countries.