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Epidemiologie Studies of an Outbreak of Nosocomial Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

John M. Boyce ,
Martha Landry ,
Thomas R. Deetz  and
Herbert L. DuPont
John M. Boyce*
Affiliation:
Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas
Martha Landry
Affiliation:
Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas
Thomas R. Deetz
Affiliation:
Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas
Herbert L. DuPont
Affiliation:
Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas
*
Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS 39216
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Abstract

In a six-month period in 1978 61 patients at a university hospital became colonized or infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Ninety-three percent of patients with MRSA were on surgical services. Patients with burns acquired MRSA more frequently than did other acutely ill surgical patients (p < .001), and often remained colonized for 30 days or more. The interval between admission and acquisition of S. aureus, number of antibiotics received, duration of antibiotic therapy before becoming colonized, and cost of hospitalization, were significantly greater in patients with MRSA infection than in matched controls with nosocomial methicillin-sensitive S. aureus infections. Acquisition of MRSA was epidemiologically associated with exposure to certain hospital personnel. Fourteen (6%) of 220 personnel exposed to MRSA patients harbored MRSA intranasally. Three of 14 colonized personnel carried MRSA intermittently for three or more months. Appropriate control measures failed to terminate the outbreak.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , 03/04 1981 , pp. 110 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1981

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