NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
In patients with hay fever, a
nasal ointment containing the antibiotic mupirocin can
eliminate Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in the nose, but this
does not improve symptoms, Israeli researchers report.

Earlier research has shown that the growth of S. aureus in
the nasal passages may worsen allergic diseases, such as hay
fever, senior investigator Dr. Eli Magen told Reuters Health.

To investigate further, Magen of Barzilai Medical Center,
Ashkelon and colleagues studied 60 patients with hay fever and
55 healthy comparison subjects.

Samples of the nasal passages growth in laboratory cultures
were positive for S. aureus in 23 (38 percent) of the patients,
but only 8 (15 percent) of the healthy subjects, the team
reports in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

The patients then used mupirocin nasal ointment twice daily
for 5 days.

Nasal cultures taken again after 5 weeks showed that the
number of patients positive for S. aureus had dropped to 6 (10
percent). However, there was no change in hay fever symptoms
based on the results of a standard questionnaire.

These findings show that eradication nasal S. aureus fails
to improve hay fever symptoms, Magen said.

The investigators conclude that this microbe may simply be
an “innocent bystander” or that “the clinical effect is too
small to be measured in this relatively small study.”

SOURCE: Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, June
2008.