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. 1988 Oct;101(2):301–309. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800054224

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: associated morbidity and effectiveness of control measures.

M R Law 1, O N Gill 1, A Turner 1
PMCID: PMC2249399  PMID: 3181314

Abstract

The strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevalent in south-east England produced in one acute hospital in a year 40 infections (bacteraemia, pneumonia and surgical wound, skin and urinary tract infections) with three attributable deaths. Rigorous measures succeeded in controlling the outbreak despite its extent, but our results suggest that less stringent measures could fail to control outbreaks of this scale. Several subsequent localized outbreaks within the hospital, probably caused by separate re-introductions of MRSA from other hospitals, were controlled by re-instigation of control measures on individual wards. The overall success of the intervention was shown by the decline in the incidence of MRSA infections from 27 in the 6 months beforehand to 2 in the most recent 6 months, and by the decline in the prevalence of colonization among patients 10 or more days in hospital from 52% immediately before the intervention to 3% 7 months after it. The incidence of attributable morbidity and death without control measures warrants a concerted effort to tackle the epidemic in all affected hospitals in Britain.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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