Nasal Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among Children in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

Abstract

BackgroundNasal carriage with Staphylococcus aureus is a common risk factor for invasive infections, indicating the necessity to monitor prevalent strains, particularly in the vulnerable paediatric population. This surveillance study aims to identify carriage rates, subtypes, antimicrobial susceptibilities and virulence markers of nasal S. aureus isolates collected from children living in the Ashanti region of Ghana.MethodsNasal swabs were obtained from children < 15 years of age on admission to the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital between April 2014 and January 2015. S. aureus isolates were characterized by their antimicrobial susceptibility, the presence of genes encoding for Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) and further differentiated by spa-typing and multi-locus-sequence-typing.ResultsOut of 544 children 120 (22.1%) were colonized with S. aureus, with highest carriage rates during the rainy seasons (27.2%; p = 0.007), in females aged 6–8 years (43.7%) and males aged 8–10 years (35.2%). The 123 isolates belonged to 35 different spa-types and 19 sequence types (ST) with the three most prevalent spa-types being t355 (n = 25), t84 (n = 18), t939 (n = 13), corresponding to ST152, ST15 and ST45. Two (2%) isolates were methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), classified as t1096 (ST152) and t4454 (ST45), and 16 (13%) were resistant to three or more different antimicrobial classes. PVL and TSST-1 were detected in 71 (58%) and 17 (14%) isolates respectively.ConclusionS. aureus carriage among Ghanaian children seems to depend on age, sex and seasonality. While MRSA rates are low, the high prevalence of PVL is of serious concern as these strains might serve not only as a source for severe invasive infections but may also transfer genes, leading to highly virulent MRSA clones.

Prevalence of Nasal Staphylococcus aureus Colonization amongst Medical Students of Igbinedion University Okada

“…Females were observed to have a higher nasal colonization rate of MRSA (64.1%) than males (35.9%). This finding is in line with reports by Eibach et al [12] where a significantly higher prevalence of MRSA was observed among females (61.4%). Young students (18-20 years) were observed to have the highest prevalence of MRSA which is the predominant age range of student population found in the university.…”

Nasal Carriage and Methicillin Resistance of Staphylococcus Aureus Among Schoolchildren in Sana’a City, Yemen

“…Our nding was also similar to those reported from other countries [18][19][20] . However, the nasal carriage rate of S. aureus in this study tends to be lower than that reported in Nigeria (56.3%), India (46.67%), United State of America (39.6%; age group 1-19 years old), Netherland (36%; age group 1-19 years, and Nepal (31%; age group less than 15 years old) [21][22][23][24][25] .…”

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Transmission in a Ghanaian Burn Unit: The Importance of Active Surveillance in Resource-Limited Settings

“…The ST152 PVL-positive community-acquired methicillin susceptible S. aureus (CA-MSSA) is significantly predominant in Africa ( Ruimy et al, 2008 ; Shittu et al, 2012 ; Egyir et al, 2014 ; Conceição et al, 2015 ; Kraef et al, 2015 ; Eibach et al, 2017 ) and has been detected in skin lesions of Buruli ulcer patients ( Amissah et al, 2015 ; Kpeli et al, 2016 ). Consistent with these previous data, seven of the eight ST152 MSSA study isolates were PVL-positive ( Amissah et al, 2017 ).…”