A Study of the relationship between environmental contamination with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and patients’ acquisition of MRSA.

A prospective study was conducted in a 9-bed intensive care unit for 14 months. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was isolated from the environment at every environmental screening, when both small and large numbers of patients were colonized. On only 20 (35.7%) of 56 occasions were the strains isolated from the patients and the strains isolated from their immediate environment indistinguishable. There was strong evidence to suggest that 3/26 patients who acquired MRSA while in the intensive care unit acquired MRSA from the environment. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 2006;27:127-32.