Nasal and Pharyngeal Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among Hotel Staff and Risk Assessment

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate Staphylococcus aureus carriage rates and to determine risk factors among hotel staff. Methods: Dacron (R) swabs were used to collect the nasal and throat specimens which were inoculated on mannitol salt agar and incubated for 24-48 hours. Identification of S. aureus was made on the basis of colony characteristics on mannitol salt agar, Gram staining, catalase and tube coagulase test. S. aureus isolates were screened for methicillin resistance by disk diffusion method. Potential risk factors (age, sex, diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease, alcohol consumption, smoking or living with a current smoker, outpatient health care use in the past 12 months, hospitalization in the past 12 months, use of antibiotics in the past 30 days) were recorded. Results: Of the 715 persons, 642 (89.9%) were male and the mean age was 25 +/- 8.6. In total, S. aureus was isolated from 73 (10.2%) of the 715 persons and only 3 (0.4%) of the isolated strains were resistant to methicillin. Among the risk factors, only smoking and living in smoking places were negatively related to carriage (p< 0.05). Conclusions: Methicillin-sensitive and resistant S. aureus carriage in hotel workers were not found higher than other community based studies.