Staphylococcus aureus show up in a sputum test?

@tutti - Yes, it showed up a few times for me. The ID doc said it was probably contamination, and in fact a nasal swab showed it had colonized there. He told me this was very common, but "out of an abundance of caution", it was treated with a salve in my nostrils for a few weeks.
Sue

It showed up in my sputum culture a few times over the years but not for awhile now. My recollection is that it was treated after the lab determined susceptibility/resistance. The decision of whether to treat or not was coupled with how I was feeling at the time.

Thank you so much for commenting. That is what they told me. I'm feeling good so no antibiotic. Yay! You made my day. 😊😘

Thank you so much for commenting. Knowledge from someone who has dealt with this is so much better than goggle. Thanks again friend!😊😘

I just tested positive for this also. Since I am producing more sputum than usual, chest is a little achy and more fatigue, and because it's my first time testing + for this, they're putting me on 10 days of doxycycline.

Here's what the doc office said regarding abx and staph in my case:

"Given that this is your first growth of staph and your symptoms have changed, we should treat with a course of antibiotics. The staph is susceptible to doxycyline and you have tolerated this antibiotic well in the past. You can drop another sputum sample off a couple weeks after completing the antibiotic course".

In my case my Dr also waited to treat. My sputum increased a lot so they did a couple rounds of Doxycycline. But everytime in finished the Doxycycline in a few weeks it would return and my sputum would in rease again. So I'm on Doxycycline indefinitely. It's been about 8 months. My last sputum test was negative for Staph but it was hard for me to get enough sputum. I gonna take another we I can get a good sample. I don't see my Dr till September. They did say I could possibly have to take Doxycycline for life, I hope not. It actually hasn't been bad, it really decreased the sputum immensely. Just another bump in the road with this bronchiectasis journey.

@tutti

Yeah, that's frustrating that it comes back after you stop antibiotics. I hope you have a clear culture next time you go in September!

Seems that it's possible for the staph to colonize but otherwise not cause symptoms in which case they may not treat, but tricky if you notice increased sputum along with other symptoms. I'm going to ask my doctor about this. I'm also curious about long-term antibiotic treatment and the possibility of antibiotic resistance developing. Presumably, they've done susceptibility testing on each culture to confirm the doxy is still effective but still hard to understand all the scenarios.