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Intriguing data from both animals and humans suggest that genetic propensity might heighten risk for Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. Danish researchers assembled a giant cohort study of almost 35,000 first-degree relatives (children or siblings) of nearly 19,000 patients who were hospitalized with S. aureus bacteremia between 1992 and 2011.
During median follow-up of 7.8 years, overall rates of S. aureus bacteremia in patients' first-degree relatives were more than twice as high as contemporaneous rates in the general population. Among siblings, rates were even higher: three times as high in sisters of patients and almost six times as high in brothers of patients. Spouses of patients had no excess risk.
This pattern was seen in both hospita…