Nasal mupirocin treatment of pharynx-colonized methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Preliminary study with 10 carrier infants

Background: Nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) i nfection in infants has become a serious concern and a new means of prevent ing the transmission of MRSA in the community needs to be considered. Methods: We performed nasal mupirocin treatment on 10 infants who were MRSA -positive either in the nose or the pharynx and evaluated the effect of mup irocin on the eradication. of MRSA. Results: Eradication of MRSA from the nose was successful in two cases and eradication from the pharynx in six (66.6%) of nine cases. The number of tr eatments required to achieve eradication varied; within three courses for n ose carriers and from one to seven courses for pharynx carriers. Eradicatio n was unsuccessful even after five to seven treatments in three pharynx-lim ited carriers. Conclusions: These data suggest that the effect of nasal mupirocin treatmen t on pharynx-colonized MRSA is limited and that repetitive treatment is nec essary in some cases. However, in view of the possibility of preferential p haryngeal colonization of Staphylococcus aureus in infancy, nasal mupirocin treatment deserves further evaluation for eradication not only of nose- bu t also of pharynx-colonized MRSA.