[EUREGIO-projekt MRSA-net Twente/Münsterland. Creation of a regional network to combat MRSA].

Over the last years, Germany has observed an increase in the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) in all S. aureus isolates from 2 % to about 25 % whereas in The Netherlands this proportion has continuously been kept below 1 % thanks to a consistent "search & destroy" policy. Both countries increasingly register so-called community-acquired (CA) MRSA which are a threat also to the healthy population without any known risk factor for MRSA carriership. The EUREGIO project "MRSA-net Twente/Münsterland" has made it its main goal to set up a German-Dutch network serving as a basis for a quality association which includes all those who are actively involved in health care provision on both sides of the border and to implement a coordinated strategy for MRSA control and prevention. The project is being carried out with the financial support of the European Union under the INTERREG-IIIA Community initiative and of the Ministry of Economics of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The epidemiological backbone of the MRSA-net is a genetic-based MRSA typing strategy (spa-typing) which has been developed by the Institute for Hygiene, University Hospital, Münster and which allows regional and cross-border comparability of laboratory results. The Faculty of Behavioural Sciences of the University of Twente examines MRSA hygiene protocols with regard to their acceptability and realisability with the intention of developing user-friendly, target group-oriented MRSA protocols for the EUREGIO. The health departments involved in the project play a central role in the coordination of the network partners in the municipalities. By performing their function of surveillance in accordance with Sections 23 and 36 of the Infectious Disease Control Act they provide an important contribution to enhancing MRSA control and prevention strategies. Thanks to its cross-border cooperation and exchange of knowledge and technology the EUREGIO project "MRSA-net" contributes to controlling the proliferation of MRSA in the EUREGIO and thus to removing obstacles to the free cross-border movement of patients and personnel.