Reservoirs of MRSA in the acute hospital setting: A systematic review

Abstract

The aim of this systematic review was to critically analyse the literature and present the best available evidence relating to the significance of environmental factors, including equipment, in the transmission of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to hospitalised patients.

Despite an extensive literature search only twenty studies that met the inclusion criteria were identified and analysed. There is evidence that the equipment and the inanimate environment are common reservoirs of MRSA, and that the rate of nosocommial transmission of the organism is influenced by occupancy rate and the design of clinical settings.

Key Words:

• methicillin resistant
• methicillin resistant S. aureus
• reservoirs
• systematic review
• clinical equipment
• infection control