MRSA infections declining in health care settings, CDC reports

LOS ANGELES — Dangerous infections caused by the bacterium methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, appear to be declining in health care settings across the nation, the federal government reported Tuesday.

An analysis conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 28 percent drop in cases of MRSA contracted in hospitals from 2005 to 2008 and a 17 percent decrease of cases contracted outside the hospital but among those who had kidney dialysis or had been in a hospital or nursing home in the prior year.

Although it's unclear why health-care-associated MRSA cases are waning, it's welcome news to hospital administrators and infection-control officials as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has declared preventing such infections one of its major objectives.

"We're very happy about this," said Dr. Ghinwa Dumyati, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center who directed one of the surveillance sites included in the study. "Hospitals have done a lot over the past decade to make care safer."

MRSA has been the most prominent of the infections that spread easily in hospitals. Though the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium is commonly found on skin and in the nose and is typically harmless, in cases of invasive MRSA — the focus of this study — it spreads to the blood, lungs, soft tissue, bones or joints.

The infection can progress rapidly and is difficult to treat. An estimated 90,000 MRSA infections linked to health care are reported each year in the U.S., causing about 15,000 deaths, mostly among older people or people with underlying illnesses.

Stringent infection-control strategies have been implemented in many hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices in the last decade to reduce infection rates. The measures include using routine checklists to ensure sterility, improved hand-washing, cleaning a patient's skin with disinfectant, removing unnecessary catheters and tracking infection rates.

Earlier small studies had hinted that infections were on the downswing. A study published last year found that cases of MRSA linked to catheter insertions in intensive care units had dropped substantially in the last decade following strict adherence to infection control procedures. Others have reported falling MRSA rates in Europe.