Frequency of nasal and wound isolates of Staphylococcus aureus associated with TSST-1 production in Jordanian population

A total of 110 Staphylococcus aureus isolates were obtained From nasal carriers and wound infections of Jordanian population. The isolates were identified by cultural and biochemical methods. The nasal carrier rate of S. aureus among individuals was 22.7%. In comparison with the nasal S. aureus isolates the wound isolates did not produce significantly more virulence factors except DNase. Toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 production was higher among the S. aureus nasal isolates (40%) as compared with the wound isolates (26%) detected by an ELISA method which proved to be uniformly more sensitive than the immunodiffusion optimal sensitivity plate (OSP) method. (C) 2000 Federation of Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.