From 2005 to 2008, the number of new infections caused by MRSA —
the deadly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — fell by
an average of 9.4% each year in hospitals and of 5.7% each year
in other health-care facilities. That good news is based on data
collected over four years of active surveillance in nine U.S.
metropolitan areas, and reported today by CDC researchers
writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association. A
total of 21,503 MRSA cases were reported in the catchment area
from the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2008. The vast majority
of those infections were in hospitals or other health-care
settings, but, throughout, the rate of new infections per 10,000
people showed a steady downward trend. The research team reports
that, “the reasons for the observed decrease in incidence of
invasive health care-associated MRSA infections [are] not
known,” but that, probably, ”a number of factors” contributed.
In 2006, the CDC published a 74-page manual on preventing the
spread of drug-resista