MRSA Screening May Not Cut Infection Rate

Hospital admission screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus does not appear to reduce hospital-acquired infections, a Swiss study found.

Dr.Stephan Harbarth and colleagues with the University of Geneva Hospitals and Medical School in Switzerland conducted a study to evaluate the effect of an early detection strategy on MRSA infections acquired in a hospital among 21,754 surgical patients at a Swiss teaching hospital.

Twelve surgical wards were assigned to either the control group or intervention group for a nine-month period. Then they switched to the other group for another nine months.

Admission screening during the intervention periods identified a total of 515 MRSA-positive patients.

The study, published in the Journal in American Medical Association, a total of 93 patients developed hospital-acquired MRSA in the intervention periods compared with 76 patients in the control periods.

Overall, the trial did not show an added benefit for widespread rapid screening on admission compared with standard MRSA control alone.