MRSA 'Superbug' on Rise in Canadian Hospitals

Researchers at Sunnybrook and the Canadian Nosocomial Surveillance Program say that over a 13-year period in Canadian hospitals, MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) increased an alarming 17-fold. There was also a dramatic increase of almost three times as many MRSA infections associated with more virulent strains from the community.

"This is the most comprehensive and representative picture we have to date of MRSA in Canada," says Dr. Andrew Simor, lead author, and chief, Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases at Sunnybrook.

"From a global perspective, this surveillance shows that Canada needs to be doing better," Dr. Simor adds. "We need to continue to be vigilant in controlling this infection and monitoring and developing more effective interventions to control [it]..."

From 1995 to 2007, the researchers conducted surveillance of MRSA infections and colonizations in 48 Canadian hospitals participating in the Canadian Nosocomial Surveillance Program, and identified 37,169 hospitalized patients with either MRSA infection or colonization. The study was published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

This representative, long-term surveillance study is the first in Canada to link clinical and epidemiological data with well characterized laboratory isolates.