This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Infectious Diseases, Other  • Quality of Care, Other  • Drug Therapy, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: We are concerned that Dr Stelfox and colleagues¹ did not adequately address the seriousness of nosocomial infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens such as MRSA or the essential role that contact precautions play in containing nosocomial spread of these organisms.²

Nosocomial infections caused by MRSA are associated with a 3-fold greater mortality than are similar infections caused by methicillin-susceptible strains of S aureus,³ and control of MRSA infections has been said to be a top priority in patient safety.⁴ As such, the risks of contact isolation noted in the study by Stelfox et al must be weighed against the knowledge that contact precautions currently remain the most effective measure to prevent nosocomial transmission of multidrug-resistant pathogens, and that contact precautions also protect health care workers and patients against communicable, potentially lethal emerging infections, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome.⁵ The authors' implied message that isolation precautions may need . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Nasia Safdar, MD; Dennis G. Maki, MD
Section of Infectious Diseases
University of Wisconsin Medical School
Madison

RELATED ARTICLES

Quality of Care and Satisfaction Among Patients Isolated for Infection Control
Jean-Jacques Parienti
JAMA. 2004;291(4):420.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Quality of Care and Satisfaction Among Patients Isolated for Infection Control
Stephen G. Weber, Trish M. Perl, and Sara E. Cosgrove
JAMA. 2004;291(4):421.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Quality of Care and Satisfaction Among Patients Isolated for Infection Control—Reply
Henry Thomas Stelfox, David W. Bates, and Donald A. Redelmeier
JAMA. 2004;291(4):421-422.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Safety of Patients Isolated for Infection Control
Henry Thomas Stelfox, David W. Bates, and Donald A. Redelmeier
JAMA. 2003;290(14):1899-1905.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT