Rapid New Test Developed for MRSA

A new screening method for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) slashes the time needed to identify patients with MRSA by 75%, decreasing the time between screening and notification of results from four days to one day, according to a new study published in the January 31, 2006, online issue of Critical Care by Biomed Central (www.biomedcentral.com).

Stephan Harbarth and colleagues from the Geneva University Hospitals (Switzerland; www.hug-ge.ch) used quantitative MRSA (qMRSA), a new screening method that identifies MRSA DNA in patient swabs, to test 1,053 patients upon admission to the medical intensive care unit (ICU) and the surgical ICU in Geneva University Hospital. More...