Staphylococcus aureus Colonization in Brazilian Children

To the editor,

We read with interest the paper authored by Preoțescu LL and Streinu-Cercel O [1], and would like to input more data into their brief review on the subject of Staphylococcus aureus colonization in children. We have previously performed and published [2] a colonization study, from March to November 2009, in 197 children in São Paulo, Brazil. Samples were obtained using swabs from both the anterior nares and the oropharynx of each individual.

The overall prevalence of S. aureus was 65% and prevalence of methicillin-resistant isolates was 5.9%. In 51 patients (25.9%), S. aureus was detected in both sites. Oropharyngeal colonization without nasal colonization occurred in 42 cases (21.3%), whereas nasal colonization without colonization of the oropharynx was the case for 35 children (17.8%). Of the eleven MRSA isolates, six (3.2%) were found only in the oropharynx and three (1.6%) only in nares.

Our results have shown, in addition to a high prevalence of colonization, the importance of investigating other sites in addition to the anterior nares.