MRSA in Nursing Homes
A new study out of Queen’s University and Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland finds that one in four residents of nursing homes are carriers of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
MRSA is a dangerous bacterium because it is drug resistant. (It is also known as multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). The study showed that out of 1,111 residents tested by nasal swabs, 24% showed colonizations of MRSA.
Those patients carried the bacteria but did not necessarily show any signs of infection and were not necessarily ill. The study was done because MRSA infections have been repeatedly found in patients after a stay in a nursing home. The study concluded that more stringent procedures needed to be applied to nursing homes by improving education and training of staff and the proper removal of MRSA from colonized patients with the correct creams and soaps.
Bacteria infections are serious. They can be prevented. Nursing homes must do more to protect their vulnerable residents.
If you have information about repeated infections in a nursing home, call me at 1-800-827-7898.
