Introduction:

Staphylococcus aureus (SA) nasal carriage in healthy individuals is a potential source of infection. The prevalence of SA infections acquired in the community has increased among healthy children. Although the epidemiology of colonization and infection by SA in other countries has been studied extensively, data are limited in Paraguay.

Objectives:

To determine the prevalence of nasal carriage by SA and its antimicrobial susceptibility in a population of healthy schoolchildren in Asunción, and to evaluate risk factors associated with colonization.

Material and methods:

This was a multicenter, prospective, descriptive and analytical study on nasal colonization by SA in children aged 5 to 16 years between June and July 2016. After obtaining authorization from parents and the school, we collected data on demographics and on risk factors for colonization. The SA colonization determination was made by swabbing samples from the children's nostrils. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed on Mueller Agar and the sensitivity to vancomycin was made using E-Test® strips. The data were recorded in Excel spreadsheets and analyzed with the R v.3.4.2 software.

Results:

299 children were enrolled in the study. Of these, 58% (173) were female with an average age of 10.6 (± 2.5) years. 79.9% came from Asunción and lived with an average of 5.1 (± 1.8) inhabitants at home. The presence of SA was detected in 30.8% (92/299) of the children. 63% of children reported some risk factor for colonization by SA. We found that a history of a previous disease OR = 1.92 (95% CI 0.88-4.28), the use of previous antibiotics OR = 1.51 (95% CI 0.89-2.55), cohabitation with pets OR = 1.42 (95% CI 0.81-2.50) and chronic treatments OR = 1.20 (95% CI 0.55-2.61) were the variables associated with an increased risk for colonization by SA.

Conclusion:

In the present study it was found that 30.8% of the children enrolled in the study were colonized by SA and that factors associated with an increased risk of colonization were a history of a previous disease, the use of antibiotics, coexistence with pets and chronic treatments.

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