Though many hospitals focus on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in many care settings, it is important to integrate methicillin-susceptible S. aureus surveillance in the neonatal care center, according to research published in Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control.
Researchers performed a review of S. aureus carrier, colonized or infected patients during a one-year period. Among the 17 S. aureus infections that occurred from January 2009 through December 2009, 15 were caused by MSSA strains while just two were caused by MRSA. While MRSA prevalence in the NCC was at about 1.53 percent during the review, MSSA prevalence did not dip below 5.5 percent.
The white coats worn by clinicians appeared to be a reservoir that helped circulate S. aureus in the NCC, researchers found.
"We believe the commonly encouraged focus on MRSA surveillance may lead to unrecognized or underestimated spread of MSSA," the researchers concluded. "This is particularly worrying for infection control in wards where MSSA is the most prevalent [S. aureus] type, as we observed for the NCC."
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