Abstract
Patients with the blistering disease, epidermolysis bullosa (
EB
), frequently suffer from chronic wounds that become colonized by pathogenic bacteria, such as
S
taphylococcus aureus
. To ...determine
S
. aureus
colonization rates in patients with
EB
, swabs were collected from the anterior nares, throats and wounds of 52
D
utch patients with
EB
. Swabs were also collected from nares and throats of 13 healthcare workers who occasionally meet the sampled patients with
EB
. All
EB
patients with chronic wounds and 75% of the patients without chronic wounds were colonized with
S
. aureus
. In contrast, 39% of the sampled healthcare workers were colonized with
S
. aureus
. Typing revealed a high degree of genetic diversity of 184 collected
S
. aureus
isolates. Autoinoculation of
S
. aureus
in individual patients with
EB
was shown to occur frequently, whereas transmission of
S
. aureus
between patients with
EB
is apparently rare. There was no evidence for
S
. aureus
transmission between patients with
EB
and healthcare workers.
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