I continue to see cases of community acquired methicillin
resistant staph (caMRSA) in my practice. So, I just read an
interesting article in this month's Archives of Pediatrics about
households contacts of children who had been diagnosed with
caMRSA. It is well known that there outbreaks of caMRSA among
members of a family, and this is thought to be due to close
contact. It seems that some members of a household may not
develop an infection, but may be asymptomatic carriers.
Traditionally staph aureus colonization has been reported to
occur most frequently in the nose. But this study looked at
other areas of the body that might also be colonized with staph.
Interestingly, 21% of household contacts of pediatric patients
with a caMRSA infection were colonized with staph. In addition,
parents of the patient were more likely to be staph carriers
than other family members. It was also found that there was a
high rate of staph carriage in the groin as well as beneath the
arms. In the study nearly 1/4 of the study p