Abstract
A survey of nasal carriage of MRSA was performed in 92 doctors, 380 nurses, 24 nurse aids and 30 nursing school students at Nagoya National Hospital. MRSA was detected in 4.4% of the doctors, 11.6% of the nurses, 8.30 of the nurse aids and 3.30 of the students. High nasal acquisition rate of MRSA was demonstrated in the ICU nurses (370%) and in the nurses of neurosurgery-neurology ward (30.4%) in accordance with high prevalence of MRSA in inpatients of these wards.
To eliminate nasal carriage, Povidone-iodine gel was applied intranasally twice a day for a week. In 61% of the carriers, MRSA detection was negative from nasal swab after the treatment. For the stable carriers, bacitracin-fradiomycin ointment was ap-plied in the same way. Bacitracin-fradiomycin was effective in 54% of these carriers. With respect to induced resistance by systemic administration of antibiotics, local appli-cation of these antibiotics seemed to be reasonable.
Coagulase type of MRSA isolated from medical staff showed no agreement with that of inpatients in the same wards and the same period. At present nasal carriage of MRSA in medical staff was markedly decreased by repetitive treatment, but the detec-tion of MRSA from inpatients was further increasing. These findings suggest low po-sibility of MRSA spreading to inpatients caused by nasal carriage of medical staff.
