An interesting study suggests as many as 5 percent of all hospital and nursing home patients are infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at any given time. As reported in FierceHealthcare.com, if accurate, this stat would indicate MRSA is eight to 11 times more common than previously determined by other research. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology sent surveys to more than 11,000 members, asking them to pick a day between Oct. 1 and Nov. 10, 2006 and count cases of MRSA, then report their findings. When they tallied the data, researchers concluded about 12 per 1,000 cases were colonized (MRSA-positive but showing no signs of illness), while another 34 per 1,000 were symptomatic.
Read full news item: Study: MRSA infecting up to 5 percent of patients, FierceHealthcare.com 6/25