A prospective cohort study of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage in neonates: the role of maternal carriage and phenotypic and molecular characteristics

, particularly methicillin-resistant (MRSA), in mothers can cause serious outcomes in neonates. We aimed to elucidate the associations of and MRSA carriage between mothers and neonates. A prospective cohort study was conducted between August and November 2015 in two hospitals in Shenzhen, China. Chinese pregnant women and their neonates who met the inclusion criteria were included in this study; samples and relevant information were collected. We assessed maternal-neonatal associations by using Poisson regression models. Overall, 1834 mothers and their neonates were included in this study. The prevalence of isolate carriage among the mothers was as follows: (nasal, 25.8%; vaginal, 7.3%; and nasal and vaginal, 3.3%) and MRSA (nasal, 5.7%; vaginal, 1.7%; and nasal and vaginal, 0.5%). The incidences of and MRSA carriage among neonates were 3.3% and 0.8%, respectively. Of the 21 maternal-neonatal pairs with carriage, 14 were concordant pairs with the same phenotypic and molecular characteristics. After adjustment, the relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between the carriage of neonates and nasal carriage, vaginal carriage, and both nasal and vaginal carriage of mothers were 2.8 (95% CI, 1.6-4.8), 7.1 (95% CI, 4.1-12.4), and 9.6 (95% CI, 4.2-22.4), respectively. carriage in mothers increases the risk for neonates.