Exposure to hospital roommates as a risk factor for health care–associated infection

Update on screening and clinical diagnosis of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

“…Nasal or mucocutaneous colonisation with MRSA is a potential reservoir for infection in the individual patient as well as transmission to other patients and healthcare workers [28][29][30]. However, it has been argued that nasal carriage may not be the main acquisition pathway for SSIs [31,32].…”

Hospital roommates and development of health care–onset Clostridium difficile infection

“…Another study in a hospital with up to quadruple-occupancy rooms showed that the total number of roommate exposures per day was associated with CDI, without significant association with the number of days exposed to a unique roommate. 6 CDI pressure has also been found to be an important risk factor for CDI, in that the more patients with CDI in a given patient care area, the greater the risk for other patients to develop CDI. 7 Duration of exposure to patients with CDI as a risk factor for CDI has not been previously studied.…”

“…[6][7][8][9][10] Little is known about the impact of sharing a room with a patient with CDI and duration of exposure on the subsequent development of CDI. The purpose of this study was to determine whether room cooccupancy and duration of exposure to patients with CDI are predictors of health careeonset CDI.…”

Should hospitals provide all patients with single rooms?

“…15 Health Protection Scotland drew my attention to a survey from Canada that reported an 11% increase in risk of Clostridium difficile infection with each exposure to a new hospital room-mate. 16 This has been seized upon by the "frankly, it's common sense" brigade as justification for having all single rooms, 17 though a more detailed analysis of the results suggests that this enthusiasm may be misplaced. In this study, the risk of C difficile infection among 35 697 patients admitted over five years was 0.5%.…”