Throat swabs are necessary to reliably detect carriers of Staphylococcus aureus.
The anterior nares are the most important screening site of colonization with Staphylococcus aureus. We screened 2966 individuals for S. aureus carriage with swabs of both nares and throat. A total of 37.1% of persons were nasal carriers, and 12.8% were solely throat carriers. Screening of throat swabs significantly increases the sensitivity of detection among carriers by 25.7%.
Mertz
Dominik
D
Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Frei
Reno
R
Jaussi
Barbara
B
Tietz
Andreas
A
Stebler
Christine
C
Flückiger
Ursula
U
Widmer
Andreas F
AF
D002353:Carrier State / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D009666:Nose / Q000382:microbiology; D010614:Pharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000635:transmission; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*