Study: Community MRSA infection rates increasing

Hospital MRSA cases have been a big enough threat in recent years. Now, it appears that community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections are on the rise in the U.S. as well, in the form of a surge in skin and soft-tissue infections.

The study, which appears in the September issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, analyzed data from the 2000 to 2004 U.S. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS), to identify emerging trends for hospital admissions for skin and soft-tissue infections.

Researchers estimated that SSTI admissions increased from 675,000 in 2000 to 869,800 in 2004, largely due to a surge in infections by CA-MRSA. Other studies have shown this accounts for 14 percent of invasive infections across the U.S. and 59 percent of SSTIs who come to emergency departments.

To learn more about this research:
- read this Modern Medicine piece [1]

Related Articles:
Community MRSA getting more dangerous, CDC says [2]
Report: MRSA moving out of healthcare settings [3]
MRSA-CA danger to healthcare workers [4]
Non-hospital MRSA more dangerous [5]