4. Hospitalization as A Staph Risk Factor
One of the biggest public health threats in hospitals remains methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, even though mercifully it isn’t the monster bacterial threat it was once thought to be. Surprisingly, until very recently, little was known about how exactly the bug spreads and from whom to whom. A study in the last 3 years in Berck-sur-Mer Hospital in Northern France was conducted in which 329 patients and 261 health care workers were fitted with wireless transceivers to uncover staph patterns.
The study lasted over 4 months and tracked about 85 000 close proximity interactions (CPI) per day on average. CPI was defined as being in a range of 0,5 meters. Each person was then each tested for 48 strains of staph, including MRSA, using a nasal swab each week. The results produced concrete proof that 48% of new staph infections were due to CPI with an infected person, and 38% was due to two CPIs where A passed it to B, who then transmitted it to C.