News & Events: Media Releases

Community-based staph on the rise

7 December 2006

Infectious disease specialists are warning that a new strain of ‘golden staph’ is becoming increasingly common in the general community, and are urging the public to follow basic hygiene principles.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. or MRSA outbreaks have been the scourge of hospitals for years, and a concern for patients following surgery.

Now, new and nasty Community Acquired MRSA strains are popping up - often in otherwise healthy children and adults according to Professor John McBride, Prof. of Medicine at James Cook University and Chair of the Infection Control Committee at Cairns Private Hospital.

An aggressive infectious control policy introduced at Cairns Private in 2000 has been extremely successful resulting in ‘zero’ (surgical site) hospital acquired cases this year Prof McBride says.

“There has been a dramatic reduction, from 13 (surgical site) cases annually six years ago to zero cases this year. It is a very significant achievement.”

Infection Control Coordinator Maree Mercer says the measures were deliberately aggressive and they are working. “When patients are transferred here from other hospitals we keep them isolated until they are cleared through pathology. Other patients and staff are screened for MRSA using nasal swabs, and staff adhere diligently to hygiene protocols.”

Prof McBride says that while they can work hard to control what happens in the hospital a different approach is required for the emerging community acquired staph strains.

Health professionals first noticed new community based-staph infections circulating in the north west of Western Australia in the late 1990s. They have been increasingly commonly identified in Far North Queensland over the last few years.

“It is not coming out of the hospitals, patients are coming in with it.”

The most alarming fact is that some of the community based strains are potentially deadly and resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

The community acquired MRSA most commonly causes skin infections like boils and school sores but there are an increasing number of reports of more invasive infections such as bone infection and pneumonia. Two years ago a young Brisbane man died from one of these strains.

“It is widely believed these resistant staph bugs result from of over-use of antibiotics,” Professor McBride says.

“These organisms have developed resistance to several of the commonly used antibiotics and that really is sending a message to us all that we have to be very prudent and judicious with the antibiotics that we have because there aren’t many new ones in the pipeline.”

“Doctors have been advised to be on the lookout for infections that don’t respond to first-line antibiotics. We always say to people, look this is what we expect to happen, if it doesn’t happen that way or you think things are getting worse, come back and see us.”

Prof Mc Bride says with few new antibiotics being developed, we need to use the ones we have wisely and while these community strains of golden staph are largely treatable, it sounds an important warning for the whole community.

“Hospitals can be judicious with practice …it’s now up to community to be vigilant with hygiene in a bid to prevent the transfer of these bugs,” Infection Control Manager Marie Mercer says.

“We need to keep intervention active and preventative efforts to fight these infections. A lot of that can start with basic hygiene, such as hand washing with soap and water.”

Photo, filming and interview opportunity at Cairns Private 12:15 Thursday 7th December. Contact Kerie Hull 0417073659

• Dr John McBride: Infectious Disease Physician, Professor of Medicine at James Cook University, and a clinical microbiologist.
• Marie Mercer : Nurse Manager Infection Control Coordinator Cairns Private Hospital
• Liz Brooks: Clinical Nurse Manager, Orthopaedic Unit