A Study of the Relationship Between Environmental Contamination with Methicillin-ResistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) and Patients' Acquisition of MRSA
- 1 February 2006
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology
- Vol. 27 (2), 127-132
- https://doi.org/10.1086/500622
Abstract
Objective.: The study aimed to examine the presence of methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) in the environment and its relationship to patients' acquisition of MRSA.Design.: A prospective study was conducted in a 9-bed intensive care unit for 14 months. At every environmental screening, samples were obtained from the same 4 sites in each bed space. Patients were screened at admission and then 3 times weekly. All environmental and patient strains were typed using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.Results.: MRSA was isolated from the environment at every environmental screening, when both small and large numbers of patients were colonized. Detailed epidemiological typing of 250 environmental and 139 patient isolates revealed 14 different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles, with variants of EMRSA-15 being the predominant type. On only 20 (35.7%) of 56 occasions were the strains isolated from the patients and the strains isolated from their immediate environment indistinguishable. There was strong evidence to suggest that 3 of 26 patients who acquired MRSA while in the intensive care unit acquired MRSA from the environment.Conclusions.: This study reveals widespread contamination of the hospital environment with MRSA, highlights the complexities of the problem of contamination, and confirms the need for more-effective cleaning of the hospital environment to eliminate MRSA.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- The transmission of MRSA via orthopaedic marking pens – fact or fiction?The Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2004
- SHEA Guideline for Preventing Nosocomial Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant Strains ofStaphylococcus aureusandEnterococcusInfection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 2003
- Harmonization of Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Protocols for Epidemiological Typing of Strains of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus : a Single Approach Developed by Consensus in 10 European Laboratories and Its Application for Tracing the Spread of Related StrainsJournal of Clinical Microbiology, 2003
- Evaluation of bedmaking-related airborne and surface methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus contaminationJournal of Hospital Infection, 2002
- Survival of MRSA on sterile goods packagingJournal of Hospital Infection, 2001
- Evidence that hospital hygiene is important in the control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusJournal of Hospital Infection, 2001
- Better environmental survival of outbreak vs. sporadic MRSA isolatesJournal of Hospital Infection, 2000
- Revised guidelines for the control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection in hospitals: Report of a combined working party of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, the Hospital Infection Society and the Infection Control Nurses AssociationJournal of Hospital Infection, 1998
- Adherence and survival properties of an epidemic methicillin-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus compared with those of methicillin-sensitive strainsJournal of Medical Microbiology, 1990
- Spread of Staphylococci in a Surgical WardBMJ, 1958