Staphylococcal Carrier State

Abstract

ORALLY ADMINISTERED penicillin-G has been widely used for over two decades as an antistreptococcal agent in the prevention of rheumatic fever. In 1962 we reported a high incidence (48%) of penicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus in single throat cultures obtained from a group of 125 children attending two rheumatic fever clinics and receiving penicillin G orally as an antistreptococcal prophylactic agent.¹ The staphylococci isolated were coagulase-positive, resistant to a variety of antibiotics in addition to penicillin, and predominantly of bacteriophage group 3. Among control groups of children not orally receiving penicillin G in prophylactic doses, staphylococci were found in only 8% of throat cultures. In 1962 a second determination of the prevalence of the staphylococcal carrier state was made in the same clinic population of rheumatic subjects. The carrier state in the current study was defined by the persistence of penicillin-resistant staphylococci in throat cultures in a series of