OBJECTIVES MRSA poses a considerable public health threat to the community. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of MRSA carriage and determine factors that were associated with MRSA carriage among outpatients who had used antibiotics in the previous three months and who lived in a high-density livestock farming area along the Dutch-German border. METHODS Cross-sectional...

BACKGROUND Most colorectal cancers (CRC) develop from adenomas. Knowledge of the natural history of colorectal adenomas, which is not directly observable for ethical reasons, is crucial for designing cost-effective CRC screening strategies. METHODS We derived transition rates from carriage of nonadvanced adenoma to carriage of advanced adenoma to carriage of CRC by sex and age in birth cohort...

BACKGROUND After the implementation of 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7), in several countries, serotype 19A is now the serotype most frequently involved in pneumococcal diseases and carriage. To determine factors potentially related to 19A nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage we analyzed data from an ongoing prospective French national surveillance study of pneumococcal NP carriage in you...

Backpacks are common devices that enable people to increase their load carriage capabilities, not only in military missions but also in civilian activities. When heavily loaded, some inadequate load-carriage systems may lead to excessive fatigue or even impair the user. The purpose of the study described here is to increase the understanding of dynamic backpack behaviour and its impact on the u...

BACKGROUND Approximately 25% of Staphylococcus aureus carriers have exclusive throat carriage. We aimed to identify the populations at risk for exclusive throat carriage to improve sensitivity to detect carriers. METHODS Four groups underwent nasal and throat screening for S. aureus. Three groups of individuals in the community (n = 2632) with different estimated levels of exposure to the hea...

OBJECTIVES Bacterial carriage in the upper respiratory tract is usually asymptomatic but can lead to respiratory tract infection (RTI), meningitis and septicaemia. We aimed to provide a baseline measure of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis carriage within the community. Self-swabbing ...

BACKGROUND The conjugate vaccine against serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis (NmA), MenAfriVac, was first introduced in mass vaccination campaigns of the 1-29-year-olds in Burkina Faso in 2010. The aim of this study was to genetically characterize meningococcal isolates circulating in Burkina Faso before and up to 13 months after MenAfriVac mass vaccination. METHODS A total of 1,659 meningococ...

BACKGROUND Patterns of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) nasal carriage over time and across the continuum of care settings are poorly characterized. Knowledge of prevalence rates and outcomes associated with MRSA nasal carriage patterns could help direct infection prevention strategies. The VA integrated health-care system and active surveillance program provides an opportunity to delinea...

OBJECTIVE From April 2013 to February 2014 we performed a multicentre prospective cross-sectional study in 541 German nursing home residents. We determined pharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae (primary objective) and other bacteria (secondary objective) in naso- and oropharyngeal swabs by culture-based standard procedures and explored the influence of multimorbidity and functional st...