title: Point surveillance of Staphylococcus aureus carriage among medical staff in Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kuwait.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among doctors and nurses in Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kuwait, following the detection of 3 cases of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 260 nasal and throat swabs were obtained from 19 doctors and 111 nurses and cultured for the carriage of S. aureus. Forty-three S. aureus were identified based on their growth characteristics on mannitol-salt agar, catalase and tube coagulase and DNA hydrolysis. The isolates were tested for susceptibility to antibacterial agents and typed by phage typing; plasmid analysis and pulsed-field electrophoresis were carried out to determine their relatedness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 19 doctors, 4 (21%) had nasal carriage while only 1 of them had a throat carriage. Sixteen (14.4%) nurses carried S. aureus in their noses and 20 (18%) in their throats. The combined nasal carriage rate for both doctors and nurses was 15.8%, and combined throat carriage was 16.6%. None of them carried MRSA. The isolates were resistant to penicillin G (90%), tetracycline (23.3%), erythromycin (9.3%) and cadmium (100%). Typing of the isolates showed a variety of phage types, plasmid and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  None of the doctors or nurses carried MRSA. Typing of the methicillin-susceptible strains that they carried demonstrated that the S. aureus were different, indicating an absence of a dominant clone capable of spreading. It is important to maintain a low carriage of S. aureus among health-care workers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait.
authors.forename: Tz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dimitrov
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Udo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grover
mesh_terms: D001434:Bacteriophage Typing; D002353:Carrier State / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait / Q000453:epidemiology; D008403:Mass Screening; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009296:Nasal Cavity / Q000382:microbiology; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D010614:Pharynx / Q000382:microbiology; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*