Adults with MRSA bacteria are twice as likely to die within the next decade

A University of Florida study of middle-aged and elderly adults finds that those unknowingly carrying Staphylococcus aureus, or methicillin-resistant MRSA, on their skin are twice as likely to die within the next ten years the people who do not have the bacteria.

“Very few people who carry MRSA know they have it, but we have found a specific link between people with undiagnosed MRSA and premature death,” said the lead author of the study Arch G. Mainous III, Ph.D., professor in the department of health services audit, governance and policy at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, part of UF Health, the university’s academic health center.

The findings show that routine screening for undiagnosed MRSA may be warranted in the elderly to prevent death from disease.

One-third of Americans carry Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, on their skin or in nasal passages. About 1% of these people, or more than 3 million people, carry MRSA, the staph strain that is difficult to treat and resistant to many antibiotics.

If MRSA carriers do not develop an infection or are tested for the bacteria, they may not be aware that they are carrying it. Previous research has found that a quarter of people who carry MRSA without an active disease, called colonic MRSA, will eventually develop MRSA infection for a year or more.

“MRSA can be part of the body’s normal flora, but it can cause an infection when immune systems are compromised, especially in people who are in hospital, have an underlying disease, or after antibiotic use, said Mainous, also vice chair for research in the UF Department of Community Health and Family Medicine College of Medicine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed that in 2017 119,000 Americans suffered from staph bleeding and nearly 20,000 died. Hospitalized patients with colonic MRSA may be particularly at risk of developing an infection during hospital stays or after discharge. Injuries, surgical fractures and the use of medical devices, such as catheters, can lead to MRSA infection among carriers.

For the study, which appears in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, researchers analyzed data from the 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a large, national representative study that combines survey questions with laboratory tests, including nasal swabs to test for the presence of MRSA.

The researchers combined data on participants aged 40-85 with data from the National Mortality Register to track deaths over an 11-year period. Researchers adjusted for factors including gender, race and ethnicity, health insurance, income-poverty ratio, hospitalization in the previous 12 months, and physician diagnosis of heart disease, heart disease. diabetes and asthma.

They found that the mortality rate among participants without MRSA was around 18%, whereas among those with colony MRSA, the mortality rate was 36%. Participants who carried staph bacteria on their skin, but not MRSA, were at greater risk for premature death.

Some states and hospital systems require MRSA testing for patients before admission to hospital, but policies for the testing and treatment of colonic MRSA, which may include the use of conventional or oral antibiotics, are good. varies from hospital to hospital, Mainous said.

Without a uniform strategy, we are missing an opportunity to help prevent MRSA – induced deaths. Maybe we should know who is carrying MRSA. “

Arch G. Mainous III, Ph.D., Principal study author and Professor, Department, Research, Governance and Policy of Health Services, College of Public Health and UF Professor of Health