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

Finding It Is Not Enough

Daniel J. Diekema, MD; Michael Climo, MD

JAMA. 2008;299(10):1190-1192.

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

Each year, an estimated 1.7 million individuals in the United States acquire an infection while hospitalized, resulting in nearly 100 000 deaths¹ and an additional $6.5 billion in health care expenditures.² Many of these infections are caused by antimicrobial-resistant organisms, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ranks among the most prevalent pathogens in hospitals worldwide. MRSA is easily transmitted in the health care setting and is a frequent cause of hospital outbreaks. A 2004 evaluation found that one-quarter of US hospitals reported at least 1 MRSA outbreak in the prior year.³ As Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigators reported in a recent article, more than 18 000 deaths were estimated to have occurred among patients with invasive MRSA infections in the United States during 2005, with most of the infections associated with health care delivery.⁴

For every person infected with MRSA, many more are . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City (Dr Diekema); Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, and Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Richmond (Dr Climo).

RELATED ARTICLE

Universal Screening for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus at Hospital Admission and Nosocomial Infection in Surgical Patients
Stephan Harbarth, Carolina Fankhauser, Jacques Schrenzel, Jan Christenson, Pascal Gervaz, Catherine Bandiera-Clerc, Gesuele Renzi, Nathalie Vernaz, Hugo Sax, and Didier Pittet
JAMA. 2008;299(10):1149-1157.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Ethical Implications of Active Surveillance Cultures and Contact Precautions for Controlling Multidrug Resistant Organisms in the Hospital Setting
Edmond et al.
Public Health Ethics 2008;0:phn014v1-phn014.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

No Benefit from MRSA Screening?
JWatch Infect. Diseases 2008;2008:2-2.
FULL TEXT  

Screening for MRSA Does Not Limit New Infections
JWatch General 2008;2008:1-1.
FULL TEXT