[Nasal carriage of community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus and drug sensitivity tests in healthy children in Chengdu]

To investigate nasal carriage of community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus and its drug sensitivities in healthy children in Chengdu.Nasal swabs were collected from healthy children from primary schools and kindergartens in Chengdu in two stages (2005-2007 and 2008-2010). All specimens were cultivated. Once S. aureus was identified, drug susceptibility tests (disk diffusion method) were performed with penicillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, ceftazidime and vancomycin.430 S. aureus were identified from 2373 specimens, with a positive rate of 18.12%. Resistant to penicillin was found in 90% of tests. The isolated S. aureus was also resistant (6.28%) to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The first stage identified higher rate of MRSA than the second stage (4.28% versus 9.25%, P = 0.037). Isolates from children living in cities were more likely to be resistant to cefoxitin than isolates from children living in countryside (14.74% versus 2.56%, P = 0.006) in the second stage. We did not find vancomycin-resistant S. aureus.Nasal carriage of S. aureus among healthy children in Chengdu is common and the nasal carried S. aureus is highly resistant to commonly used antibiotics.