The only "community service" you get in a nursing home.
More than one quarter of residents of 26 nursing homes in Orange County, California carry community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which spread more easily, and may cause more severe infection than MRSA traditionally associated with healthcare facilities, according to a paper published in the November 2013 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
"Nursing homes need to be part of MRSA control strategies in healthcare facilities," says Lyndsey Hudson of Imperial College of London, the lead author on the study.
Community-associated MRSA are strains that did not originate in hospitals. Burden and transmission of MRSA in nursing homes are likely driven by the number of residents with chronic illnesses or indwelling devices according to the study, which is the first-ever to assess MRSA diversity in nursing homes at a population level and across a large region.