Abstract:
Background: The burden of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a major public health concern worldwide;
however the overall epidemiology of multidrug resistant strains is neither coordinated nor harmonized, particularly
in developing countries including Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the burden of
methicillin resistant Staphylococcos aureus and its antibiotic resistance pattern in Ethiopia at large.
Methods: PubMed, Google Scholar, and lancet databases were searched and a total of 20 studies have been
selected for meta-analysis. Six authors have independently extracts data on the prevalence of methicillin resistant
Staphylococcus aureus among clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. Statistical analysis was achieved by using
Open meta-analyst (version 3.13) and Comprehensive meta-analysis (version 3.3) softwares. The overall prevalence
of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and its antibiotic resistance pattern were pooled by using the forest
plot, table and figure with 95% CI.
Results: The pooled prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus was 32.5% (95% CI, 24.1 to 40.9%).
Moreover, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains were found to be highly resistant to penicillin,
ampicillin, erythromycin, and amoxicillin, with a pooled resistance ratio of 99.1, 98.1, 97.2 and 97.1%, respectively.
On the other hand, comparably low levels of resistance ratio were noted to vancomycin, 5.3%.
Conclusion: The overall burden of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus is considerably high, besides these
strains showed extreme resistance to penicillin, ampicillin, erythromycin and amoxicillin. In principle, appropriate use
of antibiotics, applying safety precautions are the key to reduce the spread of multidrug resistant strains, methicillin
resistant Staphylococcus aureus in particular.
