A study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology examined the risk factors associated with recurrent Staphylococcus aureus incidence in neonatal intensive care units.
Researchers conducted the single-center retrospective cohort study of infants admitted to Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital's 45-bed NICU from April 2013 to December 2015. They gather weekly nasal cultures from hospitalized NICU patients for S. aureus surveillance.
In all, 2,060 infants were screened for S. aureus and 271 were colonized. Seventy-five percent of those colonized received intranasal mupirocin. Of those treated, 162 had follow-up surveillance cultures. Thirty-nine percent of the 162 infants developed recurrent colonization after treatment.
The study shows that S. aureus strains were often genetically similar before and after decolonization. The presence of an endotracheal tube or nasal cannula/mask was associated with an increased risk of recurrent S. aureus colonization.