H F L Wertheim

..aureus infection. Studies show that intranasal mupirocin can prevent nosocomial surgical site infections. No data are available on the efficacy of mupirocin in nonsurgical patients...

..We conclude that at routine admission to a Dutch hospital (excluding high-risk foreign admissions) the MRSA prevalence is low (0.03%), due to the Dutch search and destroy policy and restrictive antibiotic prescribing...

..006). S aureus nasal carriers and non-carriers differ significantly in risk and outcome of nosocomial S aureus bacteraemia. Genotyping revealed that 80% of strains causing bacteraemia in carriers were endogenous...

..The finding warrants the use of mupirocin only in proven carriers for decolonization purposes. Mupirocin is effective overall in decolonizing nasal carriers but less effective in decolonizing extranasal sites...

..In general: early identification, isolation and treatment of all MRSA carriers, including health care workers, and disinfection of contaminated environments, are the main 'ingredients' of an effective MRSA 'search and destroy' program...

..Those infected with S. aureus strains belonging to a CC had higher mortality than those infected with strains not belonging to a CC (P<.05), which indicates the coevolution of S. aureus virulence and spread in humans...

..aureus colonizes the nose are still unknown. The staphylococcal cell-wall protein clumping factor B (ClfB) promotes adhesion to squamous epithelial cells in vitro and might be a physiologically relevant colonization factor...

..We present an overview of the current knowledge of the determinants (both human and bacterial) and risks of S aureus nasal carriage. Studies on the population dynamics of S aureus are also summarised...

..Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus is an important risk factor for S. aureus infection and a reservoir for methicillin-resistant S. aureus. We investigated whether nose picking was among the determinants of S. aureus nasal carriage...

..06, Fisher's exact test). This prevalence is still among the lowest in the world, probably as a result of the stringent Dutch infection control policy, and the restrictive use of antibiotics in The Netherlands...

..7% of carriage-associated isolates versus 52.9% of invasive isolates; P = 0.03). Multilocus sequence typing revealed that successful staphylococcal clones usually harbor the egc locus...

..This study was performed to provide additional insight into staphylococcal carriage types...

..However the test is well suited for species identification after culture and the identification of high-load S. aureus carriers...

..When the nature of these states would be known in more detail, this knowledge could be used to design novel and empirical, knowledge-driven means of preventing colonisation from proceeding into S. aureus infection...

..Superantigen gene profiles and presence of exfoliative toxin genes A and D were associated with clonal complex rather than with invasive disease...

..Nasal carriers of Staphylococcus aureus are at increased risk for health care-associated infections with this organism. Decolonization of nasal and extranasal sites on hospital admission may reduce this risk...