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Hospital-acquired MRSA increased active infection rate

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DENVER — Patients who acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus during hospitalization were at a greater risk for developing an active infection compared with patients colonized with methicillin-resistant S. aureus at admission., researchers reported here at the 2013 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

“The Veterans Health Administration MRSA prevention initiative, including active MRSA screening on admission, transfer and discharge, has been linked to a significant diminution in MRSA infections,” Marie Rubby Roger, MD, of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, and colleagues wrote. “There are limited data regarding the risk of MRSA infection in patients with health care-associated acquisition of MRSA detected during active screening.”

The retrospective, case-control study included patients older than 18 years admitted to a hospital between September 2009 and June 2011 and colonized with MRSA. Controls (n=1,024) were patients with positive screening upon admission, and cases (n=118) were negative for MRSA at admission but became positive with subsequent screening. Follow-up was conducted at 12 and 18 months.

Researchers found that cases were more likely than controls to develop infections (OR=4.81; 95% CI, 2.45-9.19) at 12 month and at 18 months (OR=3.75; 95% CI, 1.98-6.86). The most common infections included skin and soft tissue infection (cases, 5.9%; controls, 1.6%), pneumonia (cases, 3.4%; controls, 1%), and symptomatic urinary tract infections (cases, 0.8%; controls, 0.7%); however, line and bloodstream infections were uncommon (cases, 0%; controls, 0.1%).

“We wanted to see why these patients were more likely to have infections, and one hypothesis was maybe those patient were more vulnerable than the ones who had been colonized for years,” Roger told Infectious Disease News. “We still need to look further into things like demographics, age, morbidities, and all of those things to see if they have more impacts on having infections.”

For more information:

Roger MR. Abstract K-687. Presented at: ICAAC 2013; Sept. 9-13, 2013; Denver.

Disclosure: Roger reports no relevant financial disclosures.