Mr. Thompson and his associates intend to complete enrollment and analysis of 150 households in a 2-year longitudinal study. After this, he said, “we will be able to determine the directionality of human-pet S. aureus transmission as well as define the role of pets in S. aureus household transmission dynamics.”
The study was funded by the Children’s Discovery Institute of Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Institutes of Health. The researchers reported having no financial disclosures.