Staphylococcus aureus remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and, therefore, a burden on healthcare systems. Our aim was to estimate the current rate of nasal S. aureus carriage in the general population and to determine the feasibility of nasal self-swabbing as a means of detection. Two thousand people (1200 adults and 800 children) from a single NHS general practice in Southampton, UK, were randomly selected from a general practice age sex register, stratified by age and sex, and invited to undertake nasal self-swabbing in their own home. Overall, 362 (32.5 %) swabs from adults and 168 (22 %) from children were returned. Responses were greater for adults and those of increased age, female gender and decreasing socioeconomic deprivation. The overall estimated practice carriage rate of S. aureus directly standardized for age sex was 28 % [95 % confidence interval (CI) 26.1-30.2 %]. Carriage of meticillin-susceptible S. aureus was 27 % (95 % CI 26.1-30.2 %), whilst that of meticillinresistant S. aureus was 1.9 % (95 % CI 0.7-3.1 %). Although nasal self-swabbing rates were relatively low, they are comparable to other studies and may allow large population-based carriage studies to be undertaken at relatively low cost. Importantly, this study updates prevalence data for S. aureus carriage in the community.

There are still many unknowns regarding phenotypic and/or genetic characterization of the emerging OS-MRSA isolates in the UK and worldwide. Data regarding their epidemiology and optimal therapy for infection are limited and need further investigation not only in the UK, but also worldwide, as it is likely to have an impact on the empirical treatment of S. aureus infections.

Clinical Microbiology and Infection xxx (xxxx) xxx Please cite this article as: Ptasinska A et al., Diagnostic accuracy of loop-mediated isothermal amplification coupled to nanopore sequencing (LamPORE) for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection at scale in symptomatic and asymptomatic populations, Clinical Microbiology and Infection,

Serum procalcitonin (PCT) is an established diagnostic marker for severe or systemic bacterial infections such as pneumonia, sepsis and septic shock. Data regarding the role of PCT in localized infections without systemic inflammatory response syndrome are scarce. The aim of this review is to assess the value of PCT measurements in localized infections such as skin and skin structure infections, diabetic foot infections, septic arthritis (SA) and osteomyelitis. It appears that serum PCT is unlikely to change the clinical practice in skin and skin structure infection. However, serum PCT could have a role in diagnosis and monitoring of diabetic foot infections in hospitalized settings. There are conflicting reports regarding the ability of serum PCT to distinguish SA from non-SA; synovial PCT may be more appropriate in these settings, including in implant-related infections. Better designed studies are needed to evaluate the usefulness of PCT with or without other biomarkers in localized infections.

BackgroundVast numbers of bone and joint infections in adults, including prosthetic joint infections, are caused by staphylococci. Because of the complexity of these infections, treatment with broadspectrum antibiotics active against staphylococci usually is started before sampling. This may be one of the reasons why conventional microbiology cultures fail to identify a causative organism. We sought to demonstrate that a specific duplex Staphylococcus species real-time polymerase chain reaction can aid in the diagnosis and antimicrobial management of these cases.