Mortality from methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7387.501/a

BMJ 2003;326:501 ( 1 March )

Letters

Mortality from methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Welsh surveillance data show plateau

Is death by disease or treatment?

Welsh surveillance data show plateau

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Crowcroft and Catchpole conclude from a study of death certificates that infections due to methicillin resistant Staphylococcusaureus are an increasing cause of mortality in England and Wales.¹That this was likely to have been the case in Wales over the periodof their study, 1993-8, is supported by surveillance data, whichshow a large rise in bacteraemias caused by S aureus between 1991and 1997 (figure).

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This can largely be attributed to increasing occurrence of methicillin resistant S aureus as a cause of these infections from1993, although a smaller rise in methicillin sensitive S aureusbacteraemias was also recorded. The degree to which this increasein staphylococcal bacteraemias has affected outcomes in relationto the underlying clinical conditions is, however, unknown, andfor the reasons pointed out by Liggett and Swift in their electronicresponse cannot be accurately inferred from data derived fromdeath certificates.²

The Welsh surveillance data . . . [Full text of this article]

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Mortality from methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in England and Wales: analysis of death certificates: N S Crowcroft and M Catchpole
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