• Camila Arriagada-Egnen, Josefina Rodríguez Salas, Marcela Concha-Rogazy, Natalia Sabatini Ugarte, Sui-Yen Loo Acosta, Félix Fich Schilcrot, Pablo Uribe, Marusella Lam Esquenazi, and Patricia García Cañete.
• Hospital Clínico La Florida, Santiago, Chile.
• Rev Med Chil. 2023 Jun 1; 151 (6): 696701696-701.

ObjectivesThe primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of nasal colonization of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in medical students in pre-clinical versus clinical courses at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and to describe the epidemiological, clinical and molecular pattern of the MRSA strains obtained.MethodA cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on 299 undergraduate and graduate medical students from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 44 first-year students and 29 second-year students, corresponding to students of courses without regular clinical exposure and 26 sixth-year students, 58 seventh-year and 142 residents, who are daily exposed to hospital environments.ResultsA carriage of 0% (0/73) was found in students not exposed to the clinic (pre-clinical courses) and 0.9% (2/226) in students of clinical courses, a difference that was not statistically significant (p-value 0.42).ConclusionsThe MRSA nasal carriage found in our medical students was low, finding positive samples only in students with clinical exposure. This prevalence is similar to the one reported in other studies in Chile with similar characteristics.

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