Isolation of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus from nasopharyngeal swabs on admission to a ward for pediatric patients

Abstract

Between 1992 and 1993, 2313 nasopharyngeal swabs were taken and cultured from 1665 patients on admission to a pediatric ward at Asahikawa Kosei Hospital. Twenty nine strains of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were isolated from 28 patients. The ages of these patients ranged from 2 months to 9 years and 14 patients were younger than 1 year. Their underlying diseases were bronchial asthma in 9 patients, prematurely born infants with chronic lung disease in 4. Fourteen patients had a history of admission during the past 6 months. No patient had infectious diseases due to MRSA.