MRSA infections down in all categories, hospital acquired down more than 50% according to study
Infections caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, has decreased in all settings, according to new data published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Internal Medicine published Monday.
Credits: CDC/Janice Carr
The study, led by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), looked at MRSA cultures in 9 US metropolitan areas from 2005 through 2011.
The three categories of settings include invasive MRSA health care–associated community-onset (HACO) infections, defined as cultured ≤3 days after admission and/or prior year dialysis, hospitalization, surgery, long-term care residence, or central vascular catheter presence ≤2 days before culture; hospital onset infections and community-associated infections.
What thet found was in 2011, there were 80,461 invasive MRSA infections nationally– 48,353 were HACO, 14,156 were hospital acquired and 16,560 were community acquired.
Since 2005, adjusted national estimated incidence rates decreased among HACO infections by 27.7% and hospital-onset infections decreased by 54.2%, while community-associated infections decreased by only 5.0%.
In addition, researchers found that MRSA-associated deaths also dropped by 47 percent since 2005.
Although community-acquired MRSA infection decreased so little, Dr. Raymund Dantes, who led the study while at the CDC said, “The good news is… the most serious kind of infection that lands people in hospitals and kills people is going down in the U.S.”
According to the CDC, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics. In the community, most MRSA infections are skin infections. In medical facilities, MRSA causes life-threatening bloodstream infections, pneumonia and surgical site infections.
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