Community-based educational intervention to limit the dissemination of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusin Northern Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

BackgroundSurveillance examining the incidence of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) was conducted over 8 years beginning in 2001 in three health regions covering the northern half of Saskatchewan. The annual rate of individuals reported with CA-MRSA infection in these regions dramatically increased from 8.2 per 10,000 population in 2001 (range to 4.4-10.1 per 10,000) to 168.1 per 10,000 in 2006 (range 43.4-230.9 per 10,000). To address this issue, a team of community members, healthcare professionals, educators and research scientists formed a team called "the Northern Antibiotic Resistance Partnership" (NARP) to develop physician, patient, community, and school based educational materials in an attempt to limit the spread of CA-MRSA.MethodsPosters, radio broadcasts, community slide presentations, physician treatment algorithms, patient pamphlets, and school educational programs Do Bugs Need Drugs http://www.dobugsneeddrugs.org and Germs Away http://www.germsaway.ca were provided to targeted northern communities experiencing high rates of infections.ResultsFollowing implementation of this program, the rates of MRSA infections in the targeted communities have decreased nearly two-fold (242.8 to 129.3 infections/10,000 population) from 2006 to 2008. Through pre-and post-educational intervention surveys, this decrease in MRSA infections coincided with an increase in knowledge related to appropriate antimicrobial usage and hand washing in these communities.ConclusionThese educational materials are all freely available http://www.narp.ca and will hopefully aid in increasing awareness of the importance of proper antimicrobial usage and hygiene in diminishing the spread of S. aureus and other infectious diseases in other communities.

Factors Associated With High Resource Utilization in Pediatric Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Hospitalizations

“…By identifying the needs of a community, a previous multilevel educational program in a targeted population with SSTIs successfully prevented MRSA infections through radio broadcasts, community presentations, treatment algorithms, pamphlets, and school educational programs. 21 The results of this study suggest potential target areas for future public health interventions that may help reduce the high resource burden attributable to pediatric SSTI hospitalizations.…”

Implementation of a Training Course Increased the Diagnosis of Histoplasmosis in Colombia

“…As an example, a marked reduction of congenital transmission of toxoplasmosis in Brazil, and a significant reduction of communityassociated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus outbreaks in Canada have been reported. 20,21 In developing countries from Asia and Africa, training courses in laboratory management and epidemiology have strengthened the technical laboratory capacity and the acquisition of new skills by the medical staff as a result of implementing educational programs for prevention and early detection of cancer and other diseases. A total of 92 outbreak investigations, 47 surveillance evaluations, 19 planned studies, and analyses of over 31 (20) 8 (15) Hc-Ag = Histoplasma capsulatum antigenuria test; Hc100-PCR = nested polymerase chain reaction for Histoplasma capsulatum; HIV = human immunodeficiency virus; ID = immunodiffusion.…”

Contamination of public transports by Staphylococcus aureus and its carriage by biomedical students: point-prevalence, related risk factors and molecular characterization of methicillin-resistant strains

“…1,2 In the community, the most frequent S. aureus infections are caused by methicillin-sensitive strains, but the recent decades have seen an emerging incidence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus-(MRSA)-related infections and deaths. 3 Initially, most MRSA strains found in the community were only resistant to b-lactam antibiotics, explained by the presence of smaller types of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec IV and V). However, recently, the resistance to other classes of antimicrobials has become frequent.…”