Rapid Screening - Will it make a difference?

Link: Screening for MRSA -- Wilcox 336 (7650): 899 -- BMJ.

Controversy about the effectiveness of screening for meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) stems from the scarcity of robust data from controlled studies. Typically, studies supporting screening have used multiple control measures to curtail hospital outbreaks of MRSA and have lacked control groups.1 The effectiveness of screening depends on key factors including compliance with and sensitivity of screening, capacity to isolate or form cohorts out of identified MRSA carriers, efficacy of decolonisation regimens, and compliance with standard infection control precautions (such as hand hygiene, aseptic procedures when handling vulnerable sites or devices, and prophylaxis).2 In the accompanying study, Jeyaratnam and colleagues report a randomised controlled trial of the effect of rapid screening for MRSA on acquisition of MRSA on hospital general wards in the United Kingdom.3