Colonization of newly arrived house staff by virulent staphylococcal phage types endemic to a hospital environment

Abstract

The acquisition of hospital strains of Staphylococcus aureus by new house officers was studied in an 800-bed referral hospital over a 1-year period. S. aureus isolates, including three strains with characteristic phage patterns that had previously been documented to cause disease in patients and colonize hospital personnel, were recovered from the anterior nares of 35 of 54 newly arrived house officers. There was a significant correlation (r = 0.7475; P less than 0.02) between colonization with the dominant hospital strain (S) and exposure to the hospital environment over 12 months. No hospital-wide increase in infections owing to the S strain was seen during this period, which suggests that house staff acquired this strain from reservoirs within the hospital. The finding of colonization with virulent endemic S. aureus strains in house officers working on every ward of the hospital suggests that new strategies for control of S. aureus nosocomial infections must be considered and evaluated.