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Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology Publication Info

Article DOI: 10.1086/502228
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/502228
Community‐Acquired Methicillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Singapore Is Usually “Healthcare Associated” • 
Paul A. Tambyah , MBBS, Abdulrazaq G. Habib , MRCP, FWACP, Toon‐Mae Ng , BN, Helen Goh , B HlthSc (N) and Gamini Kumarasinghe , FRCPath
Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology , Vol. 24, No. 6 (June 2003), pp. 436-438
Article DOI: 10.1086/502228
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/502228
Original Articles

Community‐Acquired Methicillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Singapore Is Usually “Healthcare Associated”

Formats Available in JSTOR: PDF

Abstract(back to top)

OBJECTIVE. To assess the frequency of community‐acquired methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.

SETTING. A teaching hospital in Singapore.

METHODS. Prospectively collected surveillance data were reviewed during a 1‐year period to determine the extent and origin of community‐acquired MRSA infections.

RESULTS. Whereas 32% of 383 MRSA infections were detected less than 48 hours after hospital admission and would, by convention, be classified as “community acquired,” all but one of these were among patients who had been exposed to outpatient centers including dialysis or chemotherapy clinics, visiting nurses, community hospitals, or all three.

CONCLUSIONS. With health care increasingly being delivered in an outpatient setting, community‐acquired MRSA infections are often acquired in hospital‐related sites and most may be more accurately described as “healthcare acquired.” Infection control measures need to move beyond the traditional paradigm of acute care hospitals to effectively control the spread of resistant pathogens.

Bibliographic Information(back to top)

  • Community‐Acquired Methicillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Singapore Is Usually “Healthcare Associated”
  • Paul A. Tambyah , MBBS, Abdulrazaq G. Habib , MRCP, FWACP, Toon‐Mae Ng , BN, Helen Goh , B HlthSc (N) and Gamini Kumarasinghe , FRCPath
  • Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
  • Vol. 24, No. 6 (June 2003) (pp. 436-438)

Author Information(back to top)

Paul A. Tambyah , MBBS; Abdulrazaq G. Habib , MRCP, FWACP; Toon‐Mae Ng , BN; Helen Goh , B HlthSc (N); Gamini Kumarasinghe , FRCPath

Notes and References(back to top)

This item contains 1 note(s).

Notes

The authors are from the Departments of Medicine, Nursing, and Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore.Address reprint requests to Dr. Paul Ananth Tambyah, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119074.The authors thank Ms. Carol Chow and Mr. Donald Chiang for help with the microbiology laboratory work and Mdm. Han Mingzhen for help with the data from Alexandra Hospital, Singapore.Presented in part at the 39th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy; September 28, 1999; San Francisco, CA.

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© 2003 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved.