PEDIATRICS Vol. 25 No. 1 January 1960, pp. 11-20
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TRANSMISSION OF HOSPITAL STAPHYLOCOCCI AMONG NEWBORN INFANTS

I. Observations on the Contamination of a New Nursery

Valerie Hurst Ph.D.1

1 Department of Microbiology, Schools of Dentistry and Medicine, University of California Medical Center

A newly opened nursery became contaminated with staphylococci resistant to antibiotics as soon as infants and nursing personnel were transferred to it from another nursery. The phage patterns and antibiotic sensitivity of the staphylococci recovered from the air were identical to those colonizing the infants and were different from those carried in the noses and throats of the personnel. Plate counts of staphylococci present in the nursery air were approximately threefold higher than those obtained in adjacent areas inhabited by nursery personnel and not by the infants.

The carrier rate, as determined by cultures of nose and throat, of infants discharged from the new nursery did not differ from that of infants discharged from the old nursery, despite greater space, more individualized nursing care, masking of the nurses, and air-conditioning. As newly born infants derive their staphylococci primarily from older infants, hospital nurseries may have to be replaced by rooming-in units specifically designed to meet present-day epidemiologic problems.

Submitted on May 26, 1959
Accepted on June 23, 1959