Objective To investigate the drug resistance and virulence genes of Staphylococcus aureus iso-lated from clinical specimens of hospitals in northwest Hubei province.Methods A total of 142 clinical iso-lates of Staphylococcus aureus were collected from 5 hospitals in Shiyan City from 2019 to 2021.Broth mi-crodilution method was used to detect drug resistance,and PCR method was used to detect 9 enterotoxin genes such as sea,mecA and Panton-Valentine leukocidein(PVL)virulence genes.Results A total of 44 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA)strains were detected in 142 strains of Staphylococcus aureus,and the detection rate was 30.99％(44/142).The resistance rates of MRSA to erythromycin,clindamycin,levo-floxacin,tetracycline and gentamicin were higher than those of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus(MSSA),and the differences were statistically significant(P＜0.05).The detection rate of enterotoxin genes was 70.42％(100/142),among which the detection rates of classic enterotoxin genes(sea-see)and new ente-rotoxin genes(seg-sej)were 47.18％(67/142)and 42.25％(60/142),respectively.The detection rate of PVL virulence genes was 13.38％(19/142),among which the detection rates of MSSA and MRSA were 9.18％(9/98)and 22.73％(10/44),respectively,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusion The detection rate of enterotoxin and PVL gene of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical isolates is high.In clinical di-agnosis and treatment,it is necessary to control hospital infection,take effective isolation measures in time and strengthen the monitoring of PVL gene.