Fact, Fiction, or No Data: What Does Surveillance for Methicillin‐ResistantStaphylococcus aureusPrevent in the Intensive Care Unit?

Abstract

The polarizing debate about how to control antimicrobialresistant organisms in hospitals continues to focus on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the use of active surveillance cultures. In the United States, MRSA infection causes an estimated 18,650 deaths annually among hospitalized patients [1] and likely cost billions of dollars [2]. The National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance system of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that, by 2003, >60% of the S. aureus isolates causing nosocomial infections in US hospitals were methicillin resistant [3]. Compared with infections due to methicillin-susceptible strains of 5. aureusy infections due to MRSA are associated with poorer clinical outcomes [4] and increased health care costs [5]. Because the prevalence of MRSA is increasing in hospitals, efforts to control MRSA are gaining more public attention. The control of MRSA in the intensive care