Study: MRSA screening helps lower infection rates

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March 19, 2008

A new study from Evanston Northwestern Healthcare shows that screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has lowered rates of infection, reports The Chicago Tribune. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, says that screening all hospital patients upon admission for the superbug dropped hospital-acquired MRSA rates by 70%. Evanston Northwestern was the first hospital group in the U.S. to screen all patients for MRSA upon admission. There were many facets to this screening, including isolation of colonized patients and antibiotic ointment for patients who tested positive. It is unclear at the moment which parts of the screening resulted in this drop in MRSA rates.

This new study comes a week after the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study saying that screening for MRSA did not lower rates of healthcare-acquired MRSA.

To read the article, click here.