The impact of methicillin- and aminoglycoside-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on the pattern of hospital-acquired infection in an acute hospital.

Infections due to methicillin- and aminoglycoside-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MARSA) appeared in a new teaching hospital shortly after it opened. The effect this had on the pattern of hospital-acquired infections in the four years that followed is described. No control measures were applied and MARSA became endemic. New infections appeared at a rate of about four for each 1000 patients discharged. It established itself at different levels of incidence in various specialist units, patients under intensive care being most severely affected. MARSA was implicated in half of all hospital-acquired infections due to S. aureus but it was not more pathogenic than its more sensitive counterpart. It had little impact on the life of the hospital.