Hospitals As Infectious Disease Hotbeds

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections can affect any part of the body, including the skin, blood stream, joints, bones, and lungs. They cannot be treated with antibiotics related to penicillin, and have become increasingly common since the late 1990s.  Researchers from the University of Chicago and the University HealthSystem Consortium (Illinois, USA)  estimate that hospitalizations increased from about 21 out of every 1,000 patients hospitalized in 2003 to about 42 out of every 1,000 in 2008, or almost 1 in 20 inpatients – representing a doubling of cases in a five-year period.  The findings run counter to a recent US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC; Georgia, USA) study that found MRSA cases in hospitals were declining. The CDC study looked only at cases of invasive MRSA—infections found in the blood, spinal fluid, or deep tissue-notably excluding infections of the skin.  Lead study author Michael Z. David comments that: “The rapid increase means that the number of people hospitalized with recorded MRSA infections exceeded the number hospitalized with AIDS and influenza combined in each of the last three years of the survey: 2006, 2007, and 2008,”