High Prevalence of Exfoliative Toxins Among Carrier Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus from Healthy Individuals from Various Communities in Chennai, South India.

Staphylococcus aureus causes infections both in community and hospital settings, nasal carriage is the important source of these infections. A total of 103 carrier isolates of S. aureus from 352 asymptomatic individuals were screened for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and exfoliative toxins (A, B and D) by two sets of multiplex PCRs. The overall nasal carriage of MRSA was found to be 13/352 (3.7 %), of which 4 were found to be positive for Panton valentine leucocidin (PVL). Twelve (11.65 %) strains were found to carry exfoliative toxins and belonged to one of the following spa types t159, t209 and t1515. High prevalence of exfoliative toxins, pvl and MRSA pose a major threat to public health, since the isolates were from the healthy in various community settings.