Are we missing the Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia forest for the MRSA trees?

Abstract

In this edition of the journal, Jokinen et al. report on a population based study of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) in Finland. They observe increasing incidence of cases over time that are associated with an increase in blood culture sampling. As compared to methicillin-sensitive SAB that increases during the study period, the incidence of methicillin-resistant SAB increases and then decreases. The proportion of cases with penicillin-sensitive SAB markedly increases in the study representing 43% of isolates in the most recent year of surveillance. While much attention and focus is typically placed on methicillin-resistant SAB, the major part of the burden of illness associated with SAB is from methicillin-sensitive and penicillin-sensitive strains. A narrow focus on prevention of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus will only have a limited impact on the overall burden of disease due to SAB.