Study: MRSA Infections May Be Brought Home From the Hospital, Spread at Home

Drug-resistant infections contracted in hospitals or other healthcare settings are commonly brought home with the patient upon release, exposing family members, in-home nurses, and others in about one-fifth of all household contacts, a newly released study has found.

A study of more than 1,500 French hospital patients screened the patients for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections before they were discharged to home health care from February 2003 to March 2004.

Researchers from Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris determined that 191 patients (12.7%) had MRSA before they were released from the hospital. Of those carriers who were followed up on later, 75 (50.6%) had recovered from the infection within a year of being discharged from the hospital, the study found.

The 191 patients who had MRSA upon hospital discharge reported having 188 household contacts, and 36 (19.1%) of those who had contact with the MRSA carriers acquired the bug, although none developed a full-blown MRSA infection. Many people carry the bacteria that cause MRSA without actually developing the infection, researchers said.

The fact that more patients are being released from hospitals and receiving some form of in-home care for serious illnesses that used to be treated only in hospitals appears to be increasing the risks of spreading MRSA at home.

“Patients with major health problems are increasingly discharged to home health care, which creates new opportunities for the transmission of hospital-acquired MRSA,” the study’s authors wrote in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

People who were elderly or who provided in-home medical care to infected people were more likely to acquire the MRSA bacteria from at-home contacts, the study found. Close, physical contact with infected persons, such as is necessary in administering medical treatment, appears to dramatically increase the risks of contracting MRSA from an infected person, researchers said.

MRSA Spreading Outside Hospitals

MRSA infections can include boils on the skin or severe infections of the blood, lungs and surgical sites. In most cases, the infections resist treatment with standard antibiotics and can only be treated with intravenous antibiotics, which are far more expensive.

Researchers said the risk of spreading MRSA at home “appears to be small,” since many activities such as sharing a bed or room with an infected person has not been found with transmitting the infection.

Still, the study’s authors cautioned that “household contacts should apply infection control measures similar to those recommended in the hospital setting,” such as frequent and thorough handwashing and use of latex gloves when administering in-home treatment.

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