Changing pattern of nasal carriage of staphylococcus aureus in undergraduate medical students.

ABSTRACT

Staphylococcus aureus is the most common pathogen in nosocomial infections (4-6,17,19). Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus is now considered a well defined risk factor for subsequent infections in various groups of patients (5,8,12,19). Nasal carriage of the pathogen among hospital personnel is an important source of nosocomial infection (1.3.18). Very few dedicated studies have investigated the nasal carriage state among medical students (3,18,21). Incidence of Staphylococcus aureus in the nasal flora of medical students, with or without varying degrees of clinical exposures were determined in our study. Nasal cultures from these students demonstrated a significantly increasing rate of colonization of Staphylococcus aureus with increased clinical exposure and also a corresponding increase in Methicillin resistance.