Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage during the infectious diseases national congress in France

Objective. Screening for (methicill in-sensitive [MSSA] or -resistant [MRSA]) Staphylococcus aureus (SA) nasal carriage in health care workers in contact with fragile patients is a recurrent question. We wanted to assess carriage among infectious diseases healthcare workers. Methods. Voluntary health care workers were recruited during the 2010 Yearly French Congress (Journees Nationales d'Infectiologie, JNI). An anonymous double nasal swab was performed followed by PCR examination (GeneXpert MRSA/SA nasal tests) carried out on the Cepheid stand. Health care workers were also asked to fill in a questionnaire. Results were available I hour later but kept anonymous. Results. One hundred and fifty-two tests and questionnaires were selected. MRSA was isolated from four health care workers (2.4%). MSSA was isolated from 52 health care workers (34.2%). Sex, clinical activity of health care workers, hospital size, and systematic screening of patients did not affect carriage. Conclusions. The prevalence of MSSA in nasal carriage in France is similar to the European one but the prevalence of MRSA is higher. This raises the question of a targeted decolonization in health care workers. (C) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.