Direct growth on blood and screening agar for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at a tropical surveillance site was compared with broth enrichment and subsequent growth on selective MRSA agar after international sample transport. In Madagascar, 1548 swabs from an MRSA surveillance study were assessed for growth on Columbia blood agar enriched with 5% sheep blood and MRSA screen...

Background: Complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSIs) due to Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), are associated with significant morbidity. Reducing MRSA carriage has been a focus of infection control interventions. The prevalence of MRSA colonization after successful treatment of a MRSA cSSSI is unknown. Methods: Secondary analysis of a random...

BACKGROUND Patients with newly acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have significant risks of short-term morbidity and mortality due to this pathogen. We were interested in assessing whether long-term carriers have persistent risks of disease and whether all carriers, regardless of the duration of carriage, should be considered to be reasonable candidates for intervention...

BACKGROUND Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an increasingly common cause of skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) worldwide. The prevalence of MRSA in SSTIs across Canada has not been well described. Studies in the United States have shown significant geographic variability in the prevalence of MRSA. This study characterizes the geographic prevalence an...

Introduction / objectives The burden of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) impacts on the effectiveness of infection control strategies to prevent MRSA transmission. Few studies examining the admission and acquisition burden of MRSA exist. We investigated the prevalence of MRSA in patients admitted to a tertiary referral hospital that does not conduct universal screening, to det...

BACKGROUND Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization is a predictor of subsequent infection in hospitalized adults. The risk of subsequent MRSA infections in hospitalized children colonized with MRSA is unknown. METHODS Children admitted to an academic medical center's pediatric intensive care unit between March 2007 and March 2010 were included in the study. Anterior na...

Background Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clonal complex 398 (LA-MRSA CC398) is causing an increasing number of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) in Denmark and other European countries with industrial pig production. Yet, its impact on MRSA bloodstream infections (BSIs) has not been well studied. Methods We investigated the clinical epidemiology of all...

While numerous studies have assessed the outcomes of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) colonization over the short term, little is known about longer-term outcomes after discharge. An assessment of long-term outcomes could provide information about the utility of various MRSA prevention approaches. A matched-cohort study was performed among Veterans Affairs (VA) patients screened for MRSA ...

Strict infection control measures introduced during the 1970s have kept the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections extremely low in Denmark. Nevertheless, similarly to other countries, MRSA infections began to appear in the community in the late 1990s. A nationwide surveillance program has collected and stored all MRSA isolates since 1988 and, since 1999, cli...

In the last decade, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been identified in livestock animals, such as swine, poultry, and veal calves, termed livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA). LA-MRSA sequence type (ST) 398 strains can effectively infect colonize humans, with subsequent human-to-human transmission both community hospital settings. Unlike other countries, had not reported J...