Nasal antibiotic doesn't get rid of hay fever

By David Douglas

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.