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Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Singapore Is Usually “Healthcare Associated”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paul A. Tambyah ,
Abdulrazaq G. Habib ,
Toon-Mae Ng ,
Helen Goh  and
Gamini Kumarasinghe
Paul A. Tambyah*
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine, Nursing, and Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore
Abdulrazaq G. Habib
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine, Nursing, and Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore
Toon-Mae Ng
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine, Nursing, and Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore
Helen Goh
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine, Nursing, and Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore
Gamini Kumarasinghe
Affiliation:
Departments of Medicine, Nursing, and Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore
*
Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119074
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Abstract

Objecttve:

To assess the frequency of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.

Setting:

A teaching hospital in Singapore.

Methods:

Prospectively collected surveillance data were reviewed during a 1-year period to determine the extent and origin of community-acquired MRSA infections.

Results:

Whereas 32% of 383 MRSA infections were detected less than 48 hours after hospital admission and would, by convention, be classified as “community acquired,” all but one of these were among patients who had been exposed to outpatient centers including dialysis or chemotherapy clinics, visiting nurses, community hospitals, or all three.

Conclusions:

With health care increasingly being delivered in an outpatient setting, community-acquired MRSA infections are often acquired in hospital-related sites and most may be more accurately described as “healthcare acquired.” Infection control measures need to move beyond the traditional paradigm of acute care hospitals to effectively control the spread of resistant pathogens.

Type
Orginal Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 24 , Issue 6 , June 2003 , pp. 436 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2003

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