The material collected from nose and mouth (saliva and tongue smear, separately) in 130 clinically healthy individuals, enabled the characterization of 47 (36.15%) of them as carriers for S. aureus. Of these 21 were buccal carriers exclusively and 11 nasal carriers exclusively. Once it had been observed that nose and mouth shelter different phagotypes, it was discovered that the simultaneous collecting of material from two different niches (saliva and tongue, nose and tongue and nose and saliva) affords the identification of a larger number of carriers. It is recomended that, on the detection of S. aureus carriers, the isolation should be made starting with materials simultaneously collected from nasal and buccal areas (saliva or tongue).
Staphylococcus aureus; Carrier state
