eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Microbiological Research 2014-07-08 2 4 110 112 10.12691/ajmr-2-4-1 AJMR2014241 article Nadia. E. Al-Abdli batul.gr155@gmail.com 1 Saleh.H. Baiu 2 Department of Laboratory, Eye Hospital, Benghazi, Libya Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Benghazi University, Libya This study was aimed to determine the frequency of staphylococcal nasal carriage of health care workers (HCWs) and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the isolates in hospitals of Benghazi, Libya. The study was conducted in the period between April 2013 and August 2013 on HCWs from ten hospitals in Benghazi-Libya. Nasal swabs from anterior nares of HCWs were cultured and identified as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), coagulase - negative staphylococci (CoNS) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) by using standard methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on Muller Hinton Agar using disc diffusion method. Of the 472 HCWs, (47.5%) were nasal carriers of S. aureus, (21.4%) for MRSA and (26.1%) for MSSA, (36.4%) of CoNS. The highest carriage rate for S. aureus was in Physician (30.6%) followed by nurses (20.4%), helpers (22.9%) and technicians (10.9%). Almost all of the isolates showed high resistance against penicillin (97.5%) and ampicillin (98.2%). The lowest resistance recorded was for augmentin (14.2%), gentamycin (7.1%), clindamycin (7.5%) ciprofloxacin (3.2%) and vancomycin (2.1%). Most of isolated strains were susceptible to rifampicin (98.9%). The emergence of resistant strains of S.aureus should be prevented by controlling the amount of antibiotics used in and out of hospitals. Also, better control measures of nosocomial infection must be established. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajmr/2/4/1/ajmr-2-4-1.pdf Nasal carriage health care workers Staphylococcus aureus Staphylococcus