Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2014) 3(6) 1065-1071 1065 Original Research Article Carrier rate of Staphylococcus aureus among residents of calabar municipality, Nigeria Lennox, Josiah Asime 1* , Akubuenyi, Felix C. 2 , Uwa, Udeghor 1 , Abriba, Clement 1 , and Ikpoh, S. Ikpoh 1 1 Department of microbiology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria 2 Cross River University of Science and Technology, Calabar, Nigeria *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction The carriage of Staphylococcus aureus by health persons was first described by Hallman (1937) and has since been studied intensively. Repeated swabbing of the same population of normal persons yielded cumulative carriage rates of 60 90%. Twenty to thirty percent of the people are persistent carriers, 30 70% are intermittent or occasional carriers, and 10 40% are never carriers (Williams, 1963). Persistent carriers usually harbour the same strains for many months or even for years. Some intermittent carriers are examples of short term persistent carriage of a single strain which is then lost, but others are truly intermittent carriers of the same strain over a long period of time (Geoffrey and Charles, 1990). ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 3 Number 6 (2014) pp. 1065-1071 http://www.ijcmas.com Keywords Nasal, epidemic, nasopharynx, food poisoning, carrier. A total of five thousand (5000) persons of different occupational groups in Calabar Municipality were investigated for nasal and skin carriage of Staphylococcus aureus. Two thousand, three hundred (2,300) persons were hospital staff from University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, (UCTH),General Hospital, Calabar and Hanna Foundation Clinic and Trauma Calabar. Two thousand seven hundred (2,700) were from the general public. Out of the total number investigated two thousand, four hundred and fifty (3450) were Staph aureus carriers. This is a 49% carriage rate of Staph aureus. The break down for the hospital staff carriage rates are as follows: One thousand, two hundred (52%) out of 2300 persons from the hospitals staff were carriers of Staph aureus while 1250 (49%) out of 700 persons from the general public were also carriers of Staph aureus. The carriage rates of different categories of workers in the hospitals were 350 (58%) out of 600 medical doctors, 450 (64%) out of 700 nurses, 250(50%) out of 500 laboratory staff, 100 (33%) out of 300 pharmacy staff and 50 (25%) out of 200 other hospital workers. The results obtained showed higher prevalence of Staph aureus in the nose 1700 (61%) out of 2800 than from the skin, 750 (34%) out of 2,200.