Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major agents of both healthcare- and community-associated infections. Nasal carriage of S. aureus has been reported in approximately 37% of healthy persons.
Objectives: 1. To investigate the prevalence of nasal carriage of S. aureus and MRSA in healthy persons of the age group 18-26 years (general medicine students of the Palacký University Olomouc). This type of information is not available in the Czech Republic. 2. To find whether the prevalence of nasal carriage strains of S. aureus and MRSA varies over the years of studies. 3. To compare the Year 1 (baseline) and Year 5 (after a long, close contact with the indoor environment of health-care facilities) general medicine students for nasal carriage of S. aureus and MRSA strains.
Materials and methods: The prevalence study was conducted for over 12 months in 2012 and 2013. Nasal swabs were taken from the general medicine students participating in the study. Each subject was sampled once.
Results: In total, 307 samples were collected: 206 samples from the Year 1 students and 101 from the Year 5 students. Sixty-one (about 32%) Year 1 students and 32 (30%) Year 5 students were positive for S. aureus. Of them, 94 (30.6%) were males and 213 (69.4%) were females.
Conclusions: The observed prevalence of nasal S. aureus carriage is consistent with the literature data. No statistically significant difference in the prevalence of nasal carriage of S. aureus was found between the Year 1 and Year 5 general medicine students.
Keywords: screening - nasal carriage - Staphylococcus aureus - MRSA - surveillance..