Control of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a Hospital and an Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

MRSA in hospitals and outbreaks of MRSA in ICUs can be controlled by surveillance and minimal barrier interventions. REAP or PFGE typing of MRSA can be used to support or refute the presence of cross-transmission. Typing also may be helpful when planning and assessing the effectiveness of interventions directed at endemic, as well as outbreak, MRSA control.

RETRACTED: Handwashing: a simple, economical and effective method for preventing nosocomial infections in intensive care units

“…Gloves have been used to reduce the transmission of pathogens in clinical settings and to help control outbreaks. 35 Glove wearing may also influence the hand hygiene behaviour of HCWs. In some studies, this has meant healthcare personnel being less likely to wash their hands following patient contact.…”

“…Evidence that gloves can prevent hands from becoming contaminated with micro-organisms, both from patients and the inanimate environment, is provided by several studies. 35 It is important that hands are prevented from becoming contaminated because hand hygiene practices are not always successful in removing all pathogenic organisms when hands are heavily contaminated. 36 Also, in the absence of macroscopically visible contamination, it is not usually possible to know how many organisms have been acquired and the subsequent risk of transmission.…”

Hand hygiene: simple and complex

“…59 Glove wearing may also influence the hand hygiene behaviour of HCWs. In some studies this has meant healthcare personnel being less likely to wash their hands following patient contact.…”

“…Evidence that gloves can prevent hands from becoming contaminated with microorganisms both from the patients and the inanimate environment is provided by several studies. 59 It is important that hands are prevented from becoming contaminated because hand hygiene practices are not always successful in removing all pathogenic organisms when hands are heavily contaminated. [60][61][62] Also, in the absence of macroscopically visible contamination it is not usually possible to know how many organisms have been acquired and the subsequent risk of transmission.…”

β-Lactam resistance in Staphylococcus aureus: the adaptive resistance of a plastic genome

“…With the outbreak came clonal dissemination, leading to the divergence of MRSA into several dominant classes throughout the 1960s [11,[73][74][75]. MRSA is now a global scourge [76][77][78][79][80] causing a broad spectrum of infections such as superfi cial abscesses, septicemia, osteomyelitis, bacteremia, necrotizing pneumonia and endocarditis [16], refractory to almost all b-lactams [2]. Enright [81] has reviewed the path to clinical isolates from both hospital-and community-acquired infections.…”