Widely adopted method for thwarting MRSA fails in hospital that developed it
BETH MOLE - 5/17/2017, 10:38 AM
Between August and March, a deadly superbug spread to 10 infants in the intensive care unit of UC-Irvine Medical Center—the hospital where researchers developed a leading strategy to prevent the spread of that very superbug, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The hospital’s strategy, referred to as "universal decolonization," is thought to prevent the superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), from leaping from patient to patient. It involves washing every ICU patient—colonized or not—with a potent disinfectant, chlorhexidine, and rubbing the topical antibiotic mupirocin inside their noses, where Staph aureuscan sometimes lurk. It was developed years ago, in part by Dr. Susan Huang, the hospital’s infection-control expert, and the practice has swept through the country since. According to Huang, 65 to 80 percent of hospitals in the US are now using the strategy.
