Staphylococcus aureusin Antarctica: carriage and attempted eradication

Abstract

The carriage of Staphylococcus aureus was studied in a group of 28 men living in a totally isolated environment for a year. Initially, nasal, axillary and perineal swabs were taken at weekly intervals, but from week 24 throat swabs were taken from known nasal carriers. Several attempts were made during the study to eradicate S. aureus. Eight subjects consistently carried their own phage type throughout the study, despite the application of antibacterial agents. In three subjects strains were isolated late in the study of a phage type which had either not been isolated before in this study, or had not been found for a prolonged period. Nine of the 12 nasal carriers also yielded S. aureus from the throat. It is apparent that following attempted eradication, S. aureus may seem to disappear, only to reappear some time later; 'eradication' in this case would be an erroneous appellation.

Carriage ofStaphylococcus aureusamong 104 healthy persons during a 19-month period

“…By optimizing the culture technique for detection of S. aureus carriage a carrier rate as high as 83 7 % was obtained when both intermittent and occasional carriers are included. This is higher than comparable previous Danish [3,18] and foreign studies [27][28][29]. We detected significantly more occasional carriers, and these results were in good accordance with the previously described importance of the culture technique [21].…”