title: Throat swabs are necessary to reliably detect carriers of Staphylococcus aureus.
abstract: 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%.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mertz
authors.forename: Reno
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Frei
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jaussi
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tietz
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stebler
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Flückiger
authors.forename: Andreas F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Widmer
mesh_terms: 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*