A study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, examined the effectiveness of legislatively mandated active surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Illinois.
In 2007, Illinois became the first U.S. state to pass legislation requiring a "search and isolate" approach to reduce MRSA burden among critically ill patients in the intensive care unit.
For the current study, researchers assessed MRSA colonization among adult patients present at time of single-day serial point prevalence surveys in 51 Chicago ICUs. They used nasal and inguinal swab cultures to assess colonization. They studied region-wide MRSA colonization prevalence in the five years after active surveillance was implemented.
Of the 3,909 adult ICU patients who participated in the point prevalence surveys, 11.1 percent were colonized with MRSA. The MRSA colonization prevalence among patients did not change during the study period.
"Our findings highlight the limits of legislated MRSA active surveillance as a strategy to reduce MRSA colonization burden among ICU patients," study authors concluded.