%0 Journal Article
%T Shedding of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from adult and pediatric bathers in marine waters
%A Lisa RW Plano
%A Anna C Garza
%A Tomoyuki Shibata
%A Samir M Elmir
%A Jonathan Kish
%A Christopher D Sinigalliano
%A Maribeth L Gidley
%A Gary Miller
%A Kelly Withum
%A Lora E Fleming
%A Helena M Solo-Gabriele
%J BMC Microbiology
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2180-11-5
%X Nasal cultures were collected from bathers, and water samples were collected from two sets of pools designed to isolate and quantify MSSA and MRSA shed by adults and toddlers during exposure to marine water. A combination of selective growth media and biochemical and polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to identify and perform limited characterization of the S. aureus isolated from the water and the participants. Twelve of 15 MRSA isolates collected from the water had identical genetic characteristics as the organisms isolated from the participants exposed to that water while the remaining 3 MRSA were without matching nasal isolates from participants. The amount of S. aureus shed per person corresponded to 105 to 106 CFU per person per 15-minute bathing period, with 15 to 20% of this quantity testing positive for MRSA.This is the first report of a comparison of human colonizing organisms with bacteria from human exposed marine water attempting to confirm that participants shed their own colonizing MSSA and MRSA into their bathing milieu. These findings clearly demonstrate that adults and toddlers shed their colonizing organisms into marine waters and therefore can be sources of potentially pathogenic S. aureus and MRSA in recreational marine waters. Additional research is needed to evaluate recreational beaches and marine waters as potential exposure and transmission pathways for MRSA.Staphyloccus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen capable of causing a wide variety of infectious diseases and is usually associated with humans as commensal colonizing organisms in at least 30% of the population [1-3]. Staphylococcal infections are primarily of the skin and soft tissues; however, they are capable of causing much more serious systemic infections and death, especially when associated with methicillin resistance [4,5]. Initially, outbreaks of methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections were associated with hospitals and healthcare-associated exposures in comp
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/11/5