Multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Onanuga A and Temedie TC. Table 5. Antimicrobial resistance profile of volunteers’ intestinal S. aureus isolates No. of resistant S. aureus isolates Antimicrobial agent O(nv=e3ra8l)l S(tnu=d2en0)ts V(inll=a1g8e)rs p value No. % No. % No. % Ampicillin (10 µg) 26 68.4 16 80.0 10 55.6 0.106 Augmentin (30 µg) 7 18.4 3 15.0 4 22.2 0.566 Cefuroxime (30 µg) 9 23.7 7 35.0 2 11.1 0.084 Gentamicin (10 µg) 2 5.3 1 5.0 1 5.6 0.939 Ciprofloxacin (5 µg) 3 7.9 2 10.0 1 5.5 0.612 Ofloxacin (5 µg) 3 7.9 0 0.0 3 16.7 0.057 Chloramphenicol (30 µg) 13 34.2 4 20.0 9 50.0 0.052 Co-trimoxazole (25 µg) 14 36.8 5 25.0 9 50.0 0.111 Doxycycline* (30 µg) 23 60.5 10 50.0 13 72.2 0.162 Erythromycin (15 µg) 13 34.2 8 40.0 5 27.8 0.428 Cefoxitin (30 µg) 13 34.2 5 25.0 8 44.4 0.207 Vancomycin (30 µg) 14 36.8 8 40.0 6 33.3 0.671 *In the comparison of the differences in bacterial resistance to all the agents between males and females in groups, only the difference in doxycycline resistance was significant (p=0.013) Table 6. Multidrug resistance patterns of S. aureus from stools of healthy subjects No. of S. aureus isolates (%) Resistance Females (n=22) Males (n=18) Total (n=38) No. % No. % No. % Fully sensitive 1 4.5 2 12.5 3 7.9 Resistant to 1 agent 2 9.1 3 18.8 5 13.2 Resistant to 2 agents 2 9.1 3 18.8 5 13.2 Resistant to 3 agents 3 13.6 2 12.5 5 13.2 Resistant to 4 agents 9 40.9 0 0.0 9 23.7 Resistant to 5 agents 1 4.5 1 6.3 2 5.3 Resistant to 6 agents 2 9.1 1 6.3 3 7.9 Resistant to 7 agents 0 0.0 3 18.8 3 7.9 Resistant to 8 agents 1 4.5 1 6.3 2 5.3 Resistant to 9 agents 1 4.5 0 0.0 1 2.6 Resistant to 10 agents 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Resistant to 11 agents 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Resistant to 12 agents 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 Resistant to 3 and more agents 17 77.3 8 50.0 25 65.8 The evaluation of antibiotic use among the study subjects revealed that the villagers practised self- medications of antibiotics and used prescribed an- tibiotics injudiciously more than the students. The differences were highly significant, which indicate that there are some conditions, such as lack of avail- ability of sufficient health centres with competent personnel, lack of sufficient knowledge on the dan- ger of the wrong use of antibiotics, high proximity to large numbers of unlicensed drug vendors, and high poverty, which predispose them more to the misuse of antibiotic than the students who came from town and cities (14,15). However, the prac- 450 tice of self-medications of antibiotics was generally high (45%) among all the volunteers. This might be as a result of lack of strict antibiotic control in the country, coupled with the high rate of poverty among the people, which usually hinders them from completing the dosage regimen of antibiotics (15,16). The distribution of the frequently-used anti-infec- tive agents among the subjects showed that ampi- cillin, ampiclox, co-trimoxazole, metronidazole, and tetracycline were highly misused. This is due to the fact that these agents are readily available to the people at affordable prices in the country. Thus, p value 0.08 JHPN