Antimicrobial Resistance
It's Not Just for Hospitals
- Elizabeth A. Bancroft, MD, SM
- Author Affiliation: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, California.
- Corresponding Author: Elizabeth A. Bancroft, MD, SM, Acute Communicable Disease Control, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 313 N Figueroa, Suite 212, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (ebancroft{at}ph.lacounty.gov).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED INFECTIONS
- DRUG RESISTANCE, BACTERIAL
- HOSPITALS
- METHICILLIN RESISTANCE
- PUBLIC HEALTH
- STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS
- STREPTOCOCCUS PNEUMONIAE
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a well-known hospital pathogen. More than 10% of bloodstream infections in hospitals are due to MRSA, and patients with MRSA have worse outcomes than those with methicillin-sensitive S aureus.1-2 In recent years, identification of MRSA in otherwise healthy individuals in the community (community-associated MRSA) has become increasingly common.
Health care–associated and community-associated MRSA have different clinical and molecular epidemiology. Health care–associated MRSA is associated with invasive disease, health care exposure, and multidrug resistance. Community-associated MRSA has been primarily reported in young, healthy individuals with no recent health care exposure. The strains have generally been sensitive to non–β-lactam antibiotics, although most have had genes for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin and other enterotoxins that may make these strains more virulent.3-5 Health care–associated MRSA is typified by a USA100 pulse-field electrophoretic pattern, while USA300 is the most commonly reported community-associated MRSA pattern …
