BMJ  2006;333 (5 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7562.0-b

Spread of MRSA increases in hospitals

Hospital acquired Staphylococcus aureus infections, and mortality after the bacteraemia, have increased with the spread of methicillin resistant S aureus (MRSA). In an anonymised record linkage study Wyllie and colleagues (p 281) used data from more than 216 000 patients to identify 461 inpatients admitted to hospitals in Oxfordshire with S aureus bacteraemia. The rates of methicillin sensitive S aureus infections seem to have remained constant. The overall mortality after S aureus bacteraemia was 30%. The mortality was at least as high after methicillin sensitive infections as after MRSA bacteraemia.


Figure 1
 Credit: CDC/SPL

 


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Mortality after Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in two hospitals in Oxfordshire, 1997-2003: cohort study
David H Wyllie, Derrick W Crook, and Tim E A Peto
BMJ 2006 333: 281. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

The Enigma of Infection Control
Nadaraja Bathirunathan
bmj.com, 11 Aug 2006 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ