MRSA may kill more US citizens than HIV

doi:10.1136/bmj.335.7625.850-b

BMJ 2007;335:850 (27 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.335.7625.850-b

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MRSA may kill more US citizens than HIV

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

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a majorpublic health problem in the US. The incidence of invasive infectionssuch as bacteraemia, pneumonia, and cellulitis reached 31.8per 100 000 in 2005, according to a population based surveillanceprogramme operating in nine diverse states. The rate of MRSAinfection in 2005 was higher than the combined rates of invasivepneumococcal disease (14.1/100 000), invasive group A streptococcus(3.6/100 000), invasive meningococcal disease (0.35/100 000),and invasive Haemophilus influenzae (1.4/100 000), says an editorial(p 1803). MRSA was associated with an estimated 18 650 hospitaldeaths in 2005. If these figures are accurate, MRSA killed moreUS citizens that year than HIV.

Most invasive MRSA is still associated with some kind of healthcarerisk factor such as surgery, previous colonisation, or an indwellingvascular catheter. In this analysis, over half the patientswith healthcare associated infections became ill in the community.. . . [Full text of this article]

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