Reductions in healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections have not affected racial disparities in MRSA rates, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Researchers examined surveillance data for nine U.S. states from the Emerging Infections Program, 2005 to 2014. They classified MRSA cases as hospital-onset, healthcare-associated community onset or community-associated.
The study shows that from 2005 to 2014, invasive hospital-onset and healthcare-associated community onset MRSA rates decreased, but community-associated MRSA rates did not. When examining racial disparity, the researchers found African Americans had higher rates for all three types of MRSA as compared to white people.
When the researchers limited the analysis to chronic dialysis patients, the higher healthcare-associated community onset MRSA rates among the African American population was reduced but not eliminated, despite the fact that invasive MRSA rates among all dialysis patients decreased during the same time period.