Staphylococcal infections among hospitalized patients, due to both methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus strains, are a substantial problem in the US. S aureus was the leading causative pathogen among health care–associated infections (HAIs) identified during the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2015 national HAI prevalence survey (excluding Clostridioides difficile), accounting for 23% of all health care–associated bloodstream infections. Despite an overall 74% decline in the incidence of hospital-onset MRSA bloodstream infections from 2005 to 2016, these rates did not significantly change between 2013 and 2016. More sobering, strides made in the past 15 years in reducing HAIs in acute care settings, including those due to S aureus, markedly receded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: JAMA Online First