Institutional staphylococcal infection and the medical officer of health.

Enquiries made in a busy maternity unit and among district midwives, showed that among i86 births between 26th February and I4th April, I957, 24 babies developed superficial vesicular or pustular skin lesions, but none was seriously ill. Staphylococci isolated from the skin lesions were mainly of phage types 3A and 52/A/79. A hospital medical officer and several of the laundry staff had positive nasal swabs. Two pupil midwives who suffered from enteritis in February were working in the area of another Local Health Authority in April and Staphylococcus aureus, phage type 80, was isolated from a nasal swab of one and phage type 3A from the nose and throat of the other. Measures were introduced to reduce crowding by earlier discharges and improve control of infection in the unit. Domiciliary nursing staff were asked to report and take swabs of any skin lesions among babies and report breast abscesses among mothers, discharged from the unit.