PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Aylana Reiss-Mandel
AU  - Carmit Rubin
AU  - Ayala Maayan-Mezger
AU  - Ilya Novikov
AU  - Hanaa Jaber
AU  - Mordechay Dolitzky
AU  - Laurence Freedman
AU  - Galia Rahav
AU  - Gili Regev-Yochay
TI  - Patterns and predictors of <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> carriage during the first year of life; a longitudinal study
AID  - 10.1101/586032
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 586032
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/22/586032.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/22/586032.full
AB  - Objectives’To determine the patterns of S. aureus carriage in the first year of life, its determinants and dynamics of transmission between mothers and infants.Methods Prospective longitudinal cohort study of S. aureus carriage among mothers and their infants. Monthly screenings from pregnancy/birth through the first year of the infant’s life. Medical and lifestyle data was collected. Infant S. aureus carriage was detected by rectal and nasal swabs and maternal carriage by nasal swabs. Multivariate analysis and an NLMixed model were used to determine predictors of carriage and S. aureus persistence.Results 130 S. aureus carrier women and their 132 infants were included in the study. 93% of the infants acquired S. aureus sometime during the first year of life, 64% of them acquired the maternal strain, mostly (66%) during the first month of life. 70 women (52.50%) and 17 infants (14%) carried S. aureus persistently. Early acquisition of S. aureus carriage was associated with longer duration of initial carriage and was the most significant predictor of S. aureus persistence, while day-care center attendance was negatively associated with persistent carriage.Conclusions Early acquisition of S. aureus, mostly from the mother, is an important determinant of carriage persistence in infancy.