Hospital tests for "superbug" effective in U.S. study

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Testing every hospital patient to find and treat carriers of a drug-resistant bacteria can curtail outbreaks of dangerous infections, according to a study released on Monday, but some researchers questioned whether universal screening is the solution to the problem.

The authors of the four-year study conducted in three suburban Chicago hospitals concluded that universal patient screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, reduced infection rates by 70 percent.

But another researcher who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, said credit for fewer illnesses could be due to better hand-washing and cleaning practices by hospital staff.

The study compared MRSA infection rates when no screening protocol was in place, to when only intensive care unit patients were tested and to when nearly all patients were screened over a 21-month period.

Without the screening there were nearly nine new infections per 10,000 days of patient care. After universal testing was put in place, infections declined to about four per 10,000 patient-days.

"The program we began in August of 2005 had a major patient safety impact for all our patients and demonstrated that a comprehensive effort to reduce MRSA infection can be accomplished," Dr. Lance Peterson of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Illinois, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

Among the authors of the study were several researchers with financial ties to Becton Dickinson & Co, a manufacturer of a test for MRSA.

Dr. Ebbing Lautenbach of the University of Pennsylvania, commenting on the study in an editorial in the journal, said it was premature to recommend universal MRSA screening.