Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in a population of healthy Nigerian students.

The nasal carrier-rate of Staphylococcus aureus in 548 Nigerians aged 9-32 years and attending various educational establishments was 56.4%. This rate decreased with increasing age. A significantly greater proportion of females (65.0%) than males (46.5%) were carriers, but the excess in females was apparent only in subjects aged greater than 20 years. Mucoid strains of S. aureus, which gave a negative slide-coagulase reaction, were found in 21.5% of carriers aged 10-15 years, but were absent from members of other age-groups. A considerable proportion of all the strains tested were resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

[1]  A. Lamikanra,et al.  Antimicrobial sensitivity patterns of hospital and non-hospital strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from nasal carriers , 1982, Journal of Hygiene.

[2]  H. Valkenburg,et al.  Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in random samples of a normal population , 1967, Epidemiology and Infection.

[3]  R. Williams.  Healthy carriage of Staphylococcus aureus: its prevalence and importance. , 1963, Bacteriological reviews.

[4]  H. H. Weiser,et al.  Studies on the incidence of coagulase-positive staphylococci in a normal unconfined population. , 1960, American journal of public health and the nation's health.

[5]  J. Griffiths,et al.  Nasal Staphylococci and Sepsis in Hospital Patients , 1959, British medical journal.

[6]  H. J. Weinstein.  The relation between the nasal-staphylococcal-carrier state and the incidence of postoperative complications. , 1959, The New England journal of medicine.

[7]  P. Rountree.  Staphylococci harboured by people in western highlands of New Guinea. , 1956, Lancet.

[8]  R. Cruickshank.  Epidemiology of Some Skin Infections* , 1953, British medical journal.

[9]  G. Findlay,et al.  The Incidence of Staphylococci in the Nose and on the Skin of Africans and Europeans in West Africa , 1946, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

[10]  G. Harper,et al.  Determination of coagulase and alpha-haemolysin production by staphylococci. , 1946, British journal of experimental pathology.

[11]  A. Lamikanra,et al.  Nasal carriers of coagulase-positive staphylococci in a Nigerian hospital community. , 1982, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

[12]  S. Daniel,et al.  An epidemiological study of nosocomial infections at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. , 1977, Community health.

[13]  G. Ayliffe,et al.  Drug resistance in antimicrobial therapy , 1974 .