Bill Requires MRSA Screening

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The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate introduced legislation to require that patients entering hospitals be screened for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The bill includes a 2014 deadline date for screening to start.

An article in The Press of Atlantic City reported that the Veterans Health Administration implemented an MRSA screening program. MRSA infections in surgical units fell by 70 percent.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities, such as nursing homes and dialysis centers, who have weakened immune systems. These healthcare-associated staph infections include surgical wound infections, urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections, and pneumonia.

Staph bacteria are a common cause of pneumonia, surgical wound infections, and bloodstream infections. CDC reports that the proportion of infections that are antimicrobial resistant has been growing. In 1974, MRSA infections accounted for 2 percent of the total number of staph infections; in 1995 it was 22 percent; and in 2004 it was 63 percent.

For more information on MRSA, visit
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_MRSA_spotlight_2006.html.

FAC