The inflammatory response of A549 cells to an infection with 20 randomly selected S. schweitzeri and three African S. aureus isolates (one strain each of the three most common clonal MLST complexes in sub-Saharan Africa) was determined by the expression of IL8 and CCL5. After 8 h, the expression levels (in normalized fold change of gene expression) were 4.1 ± 2.3 (CCL5) and 7.3 ± 4.0 (IL8) in cells infected with S. schweitzeri and 1.7 ± 0.5 (CCL5) and 9.9 ± 5.9 in cells infected with S. aureus. Here, CXCL8 is linked to infection.