TITLE:
Cross Sectional Study of Skin Carriage and Enterotoxigenicity of Staphylococcus aureus among Food Handlers
AUTHORS:
Moustafa El-Shenawy, Mohamed Tawfeek, Lobna El-Hosseiny, Mohamed El-Shenawy, Aida Farag, Hoda Baghdadi, Ola Saleh, Jordi Mañes, José Miguel Soriano
KEYWORDS:
Enterotoxigenic S. aureus; Skin Carriage; Risk Factors; Food Handlers
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Medical Microbiology,
Vol.4 No.1,
February
19,
2014
ABSTRACT:
The prevalence of enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus was investigated among 200 participants working in three different food processing plants in Egypt. Using skin swabs, 75 (38%) of the 200 tested persons were positive for the presence of S. aureus. Of the S. aureus positive persons, 28 (14%) harboured S. aureus produced staphylococcal enterotoxins. The serotypes of these enterotoxins were enterotoxin A (68%), enterotoxin B (36%), enterotoxin C (46%) and enterotoxin D (18%). Some of these isolates produced more than one type of enterotoxins namely AB, AC, BC, BD, ABC and ACD. Analysis of risk factors implicated in skin carriage of S. aureus as age, gender, marital status, education, duration in employment, frequency and method of hand wash and incidence of chronic skin infection revealed insignificant association with staphylococcal skin carriage. The obtained results put forth the risk of food contracting contamination with enterotoxigenic strains of S. aureus owing to skin colonization of S. aureus among food handlers.