Screening for MRSA: Effective — and Cost-Effective

Internationally recommended measures to reduce transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) include isolating patients known to carry the organism and screening those at risk. Researchers recently assessed the effectiveness and the cost of screening potential MRSA carriers upon hospital admission. At a Berlin hospital, swabs were taken from the throat and nostrils, skin lesions, and any other suspicious sites from individuals who had a known history of MRSA carriage, were referred from foreign hospitals or institutions where MRSA was endemic, or had two or more other risk factors (i.e., residence in a nursing home; dialysis plus a skin or soft-tissue infection; treatment with an indwelling device; pressure sores; age >…