MRSA Screening

MRSA strains have caused a significant number of severe skin, lung, bone, and heart-related staph infections that have proven difficult to treat and, in some cases, proven fatal. Most hospitals have instituted measures to attempt to eradicate MRSA and to control the spread of MRSA from person to person. This has been a challenge as staph is a common bacterium that colonizes the skin and is found in the nose of about 25-30% of the population. In the past, only about 0.8% of healthy individuals were colonized with MRSA, but in the last decade this has risen to 1.5%, and in select populations the MRSA colonization rates were as high as 9-14%.

Since the 1960s, there have been occasional outbreaks of MRSA outside of the hospital setting, but in the last few years the number of cases has greatly increased and concern among doctors and other health care workers is growing. In the community, MRSA is causing infections in people of all ages, including young, previously healthy people with no apparent risk factors. Investigations of outbreak cases showed that the bacteria were spread in the community by MRSA colonized or infected people through close contact (such as sports or a day care) and through contact with contaminated objects (such as sports equipment, shared towels, razors, etc.). Early signs of MRSA skin infection have been mistaken as a reaction to a spider bite. MRSA may also cause a bacterial pneumonia that develops after a viral respiratory infection such as influenza.

Studies have also shown that community-acquired strains of MRSA are frequently genetically distinct from hospital-acquired strains of MRSA, indicating that they developed separately. Hospital-acquired MRSA has been typically resistant to more antibiotics routinely prescribed to treat skin infections and, in some cases, has proven to be especially virulent, producing toxins and causing an invasive infection. The distinctions between hospital and community strains of MRSA are weakening, however, as people infected and/or colonized with community-acquired strains come into the hospital setting and as hospital patients and health care workers carry hospital-acquired MRSA into the community.