Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Carriage and Its Antibiotic Resistance Profiles in Tibetan School Children in Southwest China

Objectives: To describe the Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) nasal carriage as well as its antibiotic resistance patterns among Tibetan healthy school children in Songpan County in Southwest China. Methods: Nasal swabs of both anterior nares were collected from healthy school children. The identification of S. aureus was based on the colony morphology, biochemical tests and the results of Slidex Staph Plus kit. The antibiotic resistance profiles of the isolates were determined according to standard methods. Isolated strains were tested with the polymerase chain reaction assays to detect the mecA gene. Results: 673 Tibetan healthy children were included in this study, and S. aureus was detected in 16 of 673 nasal samples (2.4%). The resistance of isolated strains to penicillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, and gentamicin was 87.5% (14/16), 56.2% (9/16), 12.5% (2/16), and 18.8% (3/16), respectively. No strains were resistant to cefoxitin or vancomycin, and mecA gene was not detected within these isolates. Conclusion: The methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) as well as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) nasal carriage rate seemed to be very low among healthy school children in the Tibet Plateau.