Patients with more than 3 days of hospital stay, doctors and healthcare workers were included in the study. Abstract Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important human pathogen and normally colonized in body parts including skin, nose, inguinal folds, perineum and throat. It accounts for nearly two-third of all S. aureus infections in hospitals. MRSA is resistant not only to all β-lactam groups but also other antibiotics including aminoglycosides, tetracycline

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... nd macrolides. The study was undertaken for the rapid detection of MRSA utilizing CHROMagar MRSA (CMRSA) at Department of Microbiology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore for the period of six months. Methods: Two hundred nasal samples were taken from 3 days old hospitalized subjects with sterile wooden swab, inoculated on CMRSA and Mueller Hinton agar (MHA) with cefoxitin disc (30µg). After 24hr, the colonies were identified on both the agar plates which were then further reincubated for the next 48hr. Results: At 37ºC of incubation after 24hr, 10.5% of the total studied samples were positive for MRSA while another 12% samples showed positive results with an extended period of incubation upto 48hr on CMRSA plates. Thus a total of 22.5% were positive for MRSA. 6.5% of the total samples showed methicillin resistance confirmed with novobicin disc (30µg) and were identified as Staphyloccocus epidermidis (MRSE) on MHA with cefoxitin disc after 24h of incubation. Conclusion: It is concluded that CMRSA is equal in activity as compared to Mueller Hinton agar with cefoxitin disc which requires at least 3 days of sample processing, so CMRSA can also be used for the rapid detection of MRSA without utilization of additional sources.