Precision surveillance in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) is proving to be paramount in the battle against Staphylococcus aureus, a primary culprit behind severe infections. Our in-depth study over a 3-year span investigated the carriage and invasive infection of S. aureus, exploring potential intervention strategies for enhanced infection prevention and control.
Through the utilization of whole genome sequence guided epidemiology, we were able to pinpoint spatial and temporal links relevant to transmission among infants. This suggests that shared spaces, physical proximity, and caregivers pose significant transmission risks in the NICU environment.
What’s more, our environmental surveillance detected potential environmental reservoirs of S. aureus, revealing the invisible malicious actor lurking behind the scene. Intriguingly, we observed an emerging trend – clusters of S. aureus strains associated with invasive infection were found in increasing numbers in infants over time during standard surveillance. This infers a potent correlation between the rate of dissemination and disease in these high-risk individuals.
This investigation underscores the crucial relationship among colonization, transmission, persistence, and the subsequent onset of invasive infections. The findings powerfully argue for the critical need for targeted measures to preclude S. aureus infections in the NICU setting.
Please be advised that due to patient privacy, the patient-level clinical data underlying our results can be accessed under restricted conditions, subject to institutional review board approval and a data use agreement. Qualified researchers for legitimate research purposes can request access by contacting the corresponding authors.
The raw sequencing reads and genome assemblies from this study have been deposited in the NCBI database, and the custom analytical code used for data analysis and visualization is publicly available.