MRSA - bekämpning av utbrott på ålderdomshem

Abstract

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, was first discovered in 1961. Since its discovery, the bacterium has most commonly been known for its outbreaks in hospitals. More recently, MRSA has been found in nursing homes and cases have even appeared outside the healthcare system.

This essay discusses the problems associated with MRSA appearing more frequently in nursing homes. A systematic research for guidelines of how to best defeat and manage MRSA in nursing homes was undertaken, and as a poorly studied area, it was not surprising the search revealed only 10 articles. In addition a small investigation of the spread of MRSA from a nursing home in Oslo, which has been struggling with an outbreak since 2004, was performed.

At the nursing home, a specific genotype of MRSA has been found to be the cause of the outbreak; multilocus sequence type (ST) 8, Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type IV, Staphylococcus protein A (spa) type t304, Panton-Valentine leukocidine (PVL) negative. One of the objectives of this essay has been to investigate whether or not there has been an increase in the incidence of this specific MRSA genotype in the area in and around the nursing home. This was achieved by comparing the guidelines that were found in the systematic research with measures put in place to stem the outbreak, and visually representing the incidence of the specific genotype by abstracting the data and producing graphs from the nursing home, the area around the nursing home and other nursing homes in the area.