Staphylococcus Aureus is a common cause for infections in the community and a major cause in hospital based disease. Up to 40% of the general public thought to be carriers and of hospital staff from 50 – 70%, and is associated with a higher risk of infection in the hospital setting. The anterior nares have been shown to be the most frequent site of carriage and are the single site of detection. [1]
In certain situations, hospital patients and staff may be investigated and screened to identify carriers of S. aureus. Food handlers may also be investigated, often as a result of food poisoning outbreak/s (MLTM)
Specimens from the anterior nares are plated in a medium selective for staphylococci, such as mannitol salt agar, to allow recovery …show more content…
Data collected from 2010 – 2012 provided for the students showing the number of positive students with S. aureus.
According to the results above: In 2010, 22.5% of students at the Bundoora campus and 42.9% of students in the City campus had S. aureus positive nasal cultures (a mean of 32.7%). In 2011, 17.5% of students at the Bundoora campus and 22.8% of students in the City campus had S. aureus positive nasal cultures (a mean of 20.15%). In 2012, 38.4% of students in the Bundoora Campus and 34.8% of students in the City campus had S. aureus positive nasal cultures (a mean of 36.6%).
In comparison to the review conducted in 1997, students in the year 2010 and 2012 were found to have a high carriage rate of S. aureus positive nasal cultures. However in the year 2011, students had a mean of 20.15% combined.
Another study was conducted at the UCLA School of Medicine in 2001 where samples of nasal flora and nasal fluid were collected from healthy volunteer donors. A total of 230 people were screened by swabbing the anterior 1.5 cm of the nasal vestibule of both the right and the left nares with a sterile rayon swab. From the 230 people swabbed only 62 donor’s nares were colonized with S. aureus (27%). [4]
Here we conclude that the results obtained from this study over the past 3 years are within the expected range of normal carriage rate, however to prevent the increase of the