MRSA detection in South Italy: an epidemiological survey to evaluate the burden of this important public healt issue

ABSTRACT: — Objective: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged about 50 years ago and, since then, it has spread worldwide. Nowadays, it is one of the principal causes of bacterial infections in healthcare and community settings, causing several outbreaks in many parts of the world. MRSA is variably distributed in the world, with the lowest prevalence in Scandinavian countries and the highest in some parts of America and Asia. — Materials and Methods: We carried out an epidemiological study, collecting all the reports of S. aureus isolates and relative antimicrobial-resistances at the Microbiology Laboratory of the University Hospital “G. Martino” in Messina (Italy) during a three years period (2015-2017). — Results: The percentages of the S. aureus detection compared to all the microbial isolates in the entire hospital were 7.5%, 7.5% and 8.9% in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively, while the detection of MRSA had a decreased trend of 7%, with a percentage rate of detection equal to 35% in 2017. MRSA was detected the most in surgery wards, with a rather steady rate in the three years. Moreover, we observed a constantly increasing rate in medicine wards and an important decreasing one in the emergency wards. — Conclusions: Our data show that, despite a decreasing trend of positive samples, MRSA infection is still an important public health issue and a cause of healthcare-associated infections in our university hospital. It is necessary to keep working to realize effective preventive measures to reduce the burden of these infections.