Risk of infection and death due to Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in long-term carriers.

This paper describes a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the risk of subsequent MRSA infection and death among patients known to harbour MRSA for at least 1 year. Among 281 prevalent carriers, 65 (23%) developed a total of 96 discrete and unrelated MRSA infections in the year after their identification as prevalent carriers. Common infections were pneumonia (39% of MRSA infections), soft-tissue infection (14%), and central venous catheter infection (14%). Twenty-four percent of infections involved bacteremia. Thirty-eight MRSA infections occurred during a new hospitalisation, and 32 (84%) of these infections were the reason for hospital admission. MRSA contributed to 14 deaths, with 6 deaths attributable to MRSA. Clin Infect Dis. 2008;47:176–81.