title: Three years' experience of screening for meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in obstetrics.
abstract: There are few data on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening in obstetrics, a largely healthy population that should be at lower risk for MRSA than most hospitalized populations. From January 2009 to December 2011 nose swabs were screened from 5548 of 21,770 (25.5%) women who delivered at Birmingham Women's Hospital. Only 29 (0.5%) were MRSA positive: MRSA infections occurred later in three cases. MRSA infections occurred in a further 13 mother-infant pairs, including six cases where mothers were MRSA screen negative. Seventeen mothers had risk factors for MRSA. MRSA is not widespread in obstetrics, and large-scale screening of nasal swabs is of limited value in preventing MRSA-related morbidity in this population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Birmingham Women's Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK. james.gray@bwhct.nhs.uk
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suviste
mesh_terms: D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009666:Nose / Q000382:microbiology; D009775:Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Hospital; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*