BMJ 2002;325:1390-1391 ( 14 December )

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Mortality from methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in England and Wales: analysis of death certificates

N S Crowcroft, consultant epidemiologist ^a, M Catchpole, deputy director ^b. 

^a Demography and Health, Office for National Statistics, London SW1V 2QQ, ^b Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London NW9 5EQ

Correspondence to: N S Crowcroft ncrowcroft@phls.org.uk

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

The number of infections caused by methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is increasing every year in England and Wales. ^{1 2} These infections are more difficult to treat than others because of the resistance of the bacterium to first line antibiotics. The impact of these infections on mortality has been unknown; data on the mortality caused by MRSA infections is not routinely available because the international classification of diseases (ICD) has no code for these infections. The evidence that the infections are associated with a higher mortality than methicillin sensitive S aureus infections is equivocal.¹ We used death certificates to examine the evidence that mortality due to MRSA and staphylococcal infections in England and Wales is increasing.

	Methods and results

In 1993 redevelopment of the processing systems for death registrations in England and Wales enabled death registration data to be analysed by all conditions mentioned on death certificates (rather than by the final underlying cause . . . [Full text of this article]

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