Cases of infection with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus acquired in hospitals’ intensive-care units have seen a dramatic drop between 1997 and 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 

The finding is based on hospital data on blood infections caused by tubes inserted into veins known as central line catheters. Over the ten-years, there were reported nearly 2,500 MRSA bloodstream infections linked to central line catheters, accounting for almost 8 percent of all bloodstream infections associated with these tubes.

 

At the beginning of the study, an estimated 43 MRSA infections were reported for every 100,000 intensive-care patients. By 2007, that number dropped to just 21, meaning a 51.5 percent drop.

 

“We looked at bloodstream infections being caused by any pathogen, not just MRSA. When we looked at all causes of these central line bloodstream infections lumped together, we saw declines of roughly 40 to 50 percent in the risk of these infections. Hospitals should be encouraged by these results. Their efforts should be continued and expanded,” Dr. Deron Burton of the CDC said.

 

However, “despite this progress, most ICUs are far from the goal of zero infections and many have not implemented suggested prevention strategies,” Dr. Michael Climo of the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, said in a commentary.

 

MRSA infection is caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, a strain of staph that is resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics called the beta-lactams, which include the penicillins and the cephalosporins.  MRSA first emerged in hospitals in the 1960s. About 95,000 serious infections with this type of bacteria occur in the United States each year, according to the CDC.