Research indicates hospitals contribute to the local spread of antibiotic-resistant infections.
A recent study published in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America suggests that family members of patients discharged from hospitals may be at an increased risk of contracting antibiotic-resistant infections, commonly referred to as superbugs. This risk persists even if the patient themselves was not diagnosed with such an infection, indicating that hospitals may contribute to the spread of resistant bacteria in the community.
When recently hospitalized patients were diagnosed with the superbug — Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection (MRSA) — the risk to relatives living with them was even higher. The longer the relative’s hospital stay, even without a MRSA diagnosis, the higher the risk to family members.
“Patients can become colonized with MRSA during their hospital stay and transmit MRSA to their household members,” said Aaron Miller, PhD, lead researcher on the study and research assistant professor of internal medicine-infectious diseases at the DOI: 10.1017/ice.2024.106
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