MRSA Reporting System Begins

California’s state public health director, Dr. Mark Horton, announced Thursday that hospitals in the state must now report to county health officials certain incidences of infection from the methicilln-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium when the staph infection requires confinement to an intensive-care unit or causes a death.Hailed by many as a welcome measure in controlling this often-deadly infection that is spreading rampantly across the country, others would prefer more comprehensive reporting requirements.

The recently announced order applies only to MRSA infections that are considered community-acquired, or acquired outside the healthcare system.

In a landmark study published in October, however, the American Medical Association (AMA) found that almost 60% of MRSA cases developed in people who had been hospitalized within the previous year and an additional 25% of MRSA-infected patients became infected during a period of hospitalization.

The new California reporting system does not require reporting MRSA infections that developed in association with confinement for any reason in a healthcare facility although AMA records indicate they account for about 85% of all MRSA infections.

MRSA infection is believed to be the cause of 19,000 deaths in the US each year. Confirmed cases of the infection in California alone rose 10% between 2006 and 2007.

Several highly virulent drug-resistant strains of the staph bacterium have evolved since the 1990s, causing increasing infection rates throughout all segments of society, including people deemed at-risk due to lifestyle choices, the immune-impaired, athletes, schoolchildren, and mothers.

Filed under: MRSA, Prevention