SHORT REPORT Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage rate and associated risk factors in individuals in the community M.A. HALABLAB 1 *, S. M. HIJAZI 2 , M. A. FAWZI 2 AND G. F. ARAJ 3 1 College of Science and Information Systems, Hariri Canadian University, Damour, Lebanon 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon 3 Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon (Accepted 2 November 2009; first published online 27 November 2009) SUMMARY The increasing prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains together with their disease impact on hospital patients and individuals in the community has posed a major challenge to healthcare workers. This study examined the prevalence of S. aureus nasal carriage, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, and possible risk factors in the community. Of 500 studied subjects (aged from 6 to 65 years) in Lebanon, the overall S. aureus nasal carriage rate was 38 . 4%, the highest (57 . 1%) being in children aged 6–10 years. Only eight individuals (1 . 6%) were carriers of MRSA. Risk factors for S. aureus nasal colonization were male gender, young age, contact with healthcare workers, use of needle injections, and having asthma. A significant decrease in colonization rate was associated with nasal wash with water, use of nasal sprays, and the presence of acne. These findings may assist in better understanding of control measures to decrease nasal colonization with S. aureus in Lebanon and elsewhere. Key words : Colonization, Lebanon, MRSA, risk factors, Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus has long been recognized as one of the most common causes of both endemic and epidemic infections acquired in hospitals, resulting in substantial morbidity and mortality [1, 2]. This is exacerbated by the increasing appearance of multi- drug-resistant strains especially those with resistance to methicillin (MRSA) which represent a serious clinical threat and therapeutic challenge not only to hospitalized patients but also to adults and children in the community [3, 4]. The epidemiology of MRSA has changed radically in recent years with the defi- nition of two groups of strain populations, hospital acquired and community acquired. The former is mostly associated with infections in the healthcare setting while the latter has been increasingly reported in healthy persons living in the community and is not associated with traditional MRSA risk factors (i.e. contact with healthcare facilities, previous anti- microbial therapy). These infections most often pres- ent as skin and soft tissue infections but occasionally as primary pneumonia with high morbidity and mor- tality [5]. Carriage of S. aureus in the nasal passages appears to play a key role in the epidemiology and pathogen- esis of infection [1]. Colonizing strains may serve as endogenous reservoirs for overt clinical infections or may spread to other patients [6]. Data on the carriage rate and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of S. aureus strains in the Lebanese community are scarce [7]. This prospective study was therefore undertaken to * Author for correspondence: Professor M. A. Halablab, College of Science and Information Systems, Hariri Canadian University, P.O. Box 10 Damour, Chouf 2010, Lebanon. (Email : halablabma@hcu.edu.lb) Epidemiol. Infect. (2010), 138, 702–706. f Cambridge University Press 2009 doi:10.1017/S0950268809991233 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268809991233 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 18.207.136.16, on 02 Dec 2021 at 18:19:44, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.