Recently, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, has drawn public attention because it has spread inside the health care facilities and outside of them, and also because of the rising number of MRSA deaths reported.

Pit County Memorial Hospital had begun testing everyone admitted to the hospital, since February this year. The Hospital announced that from 27,000 people admitted 8 percent were MRSA bacteria carriers. They declared that the incident of MRSA was with 3 to 5 percent higher than they expected.

Dr. Clyde Brooks, medical director of Pitt Professional Services and clinical operations said: "We're at war with a bad bug, and it's not just in our community. It's a national war. It's actually a worldwide problem, this bug."

Since this past winter, Pit Memorial Hospital’s MRSA screening program had led to a fall of MRSA infections in the hospital. This Wednesday, hospital officials declared some successful numbers against the superbug. MRSA pneumonia cases have decreased by two-thirds and urinary tract staph infections are down 60 percent.

This testing practice is used only by two hospitals in the country, PCMH being the first one that introduced universal MRSA testing.

PCMH officials declared that the test is simple: a sample from the nostril, where the MRSA bacteria are usually carried. When discovered, the patients receive a treatment for five days of twice-daily doses of nasal antibiotic and also they use antibacterial soap and private towels.

PCMH control program aims to treat appropriately MRSA infections at arrival in hospital and also to prevent their transmission to the halls of the facility.