MRSA Action UK: World MRSA Awareness Month prompts prevention debate
World MRSA Awareness Month is here and at the Infection Prevention 2013 conference there have been some interesting debates around MRSA and screening. There are pros and cons, with universal screening being seen as not cost effective compared to targeted screening.
Using a checklist of 'high risk' patients 80% of carriers would be detected, however, targeted screening would only detect half of carriers according to a study featured at the conference.
Another presentation on a piece of research conducted in a London hospital looking at the patient experience of MRSA screening revealed that 97% of patients who had been screened believed this was the right thing to do as they believe it is a significant contributor to preventing infection with MRSA.
MRSA Action UK echo the patients' view, however we believe the screening should cover all Staphylococcal microbes, as MSSA can be just as debilitating if patients succumb to surgical or bloodstream infections.
Other bacteria that cause problems with resistance to antimicrobials should also be included in the screening, MRSA Action UK believe the screening programme should be enhanced not cut to include these other risky superbugs.
There have been outbreaks of Mupirocin resistant strains of MRSA in the South East, which is a worrying development. We could be getting ever closer to untreatable MRSA, and since Staphylococcus is such a prevalent organism that lives happily on our skin every day, the consequences for the future of surgery are dire if this resistance develops further.
We urge the Department of Health to enhance the programme; don't let MRSA become endemic in our hospitals at the levels we saw in 2004.
Derek Butler
Chair
MRSA Action UK
Tel: 07762 741114
Email: derek.butler@mrsaactionuk.net
Web: http://mrsaactionuk.net
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