The Control and Prevention of MRSA in Hospitals and in the Community: A Strategy for the Control of Antimicrobial Resistance in Ireland(2005)

The document provides evidence based guidance for dealing with the problems of MRSA in Irish healthcare establishments. The Infection Control Subcommittee of the Strategy for the Control of Antimicrobial Resistance in Ireland (SARI) has reviewed literature and drawn on guidelines from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, New Zealand and the Netherlands to produce these recommendations and graded them in accordance with the strength of evidence. This has been used to to draft a set of recommendations for Ireland, although the Subcommittee acknowledges that many Irish healthcare facilities will have difficulties implementing all of the recommendations included in this guideline document due to inadequate infection control resources. The document includes background and justification for the recommendations and the present epidemiology of MRSA in hospitals in Ireland. The Subcommittee did not carry out a further literature review but based the recommendations on the guidelines mentioned and applied them to Irish settings. The recommendations include: - ·1. Prevention and control in hospitals including general measures such as hand hygiene and antibiotic stewardship ·2. Specific measures such as surveillance and screening, patient isolation and cohorting, eradication od MRSA carriage, control of GISA/GRSA ·3. Control of MRSA in the community including recommendations for care in patients in their own home and care in community units and recommendations for care of patients with MRSA, ulcers or invasive devices plus course of action if there is spread of MRSA infection in a community unit. Appendices include - A summary of guidelines for hand hygiene - Laboratory methods of detection - Contact precautions - Summary of recommendations from the SARI Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Subcommittee The report includes an overview of measures and their importance and future research and developments, makes recommendations on current resources and research needed and acknowledges the difficulties that many Irish Healthcare Facilities may experience in implementing the recommendations due to lack of infection control resources. http://www.ndsc.ie/hpsc/