Baltimore health officials will be encouraging dialysis centers and HIV treatment clinics to review procedures for stopping the spread of drug-resistant staph infections in the wake of two new reports shedding light on the bacteria.
“MRSA has typically been a hospital issue,” Baltimore Health Department Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein said of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria that cause sometimes-fatal skin infections.
But MRSA is also transmitted in other settings, such as outpatient clinics, suggesting officials should find a more systematic way to reduce infections there, Sharfstein said.
Baltimore’s MRSA infection rates are greater than surrounding jurisdictions, and now two reports provide a picture of the bacteria in the city.
“This gives, for the first time, an overall picture of how these infections have been playing out in Baltimore,” Sharfstein said at a news conference Monday at the health department headquarters.
Overall, MRSA infections have declined in Baltimore between 2004 to 2007, mainly in cases associated with intravenous drug use and surgery, according to a health department analysis of Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention data.
MRSA incidence linked to hospitalizations declined 16 percent and infections linked to surgeries dipped 30 percent, the data show.
During the same time, non-hospitalized residents receiving dialysis reported a 1-percent increase, and HIV-positive residents who weren’t hospitalized saw a 12-percent increase in infections, the data show.
A related study from the Rand Corp. found that, from 2000 to 2006, hospitalizations for cellulitis, a skin infection frequently associated with MRSA, rose 74 percent in Baltimore. Rates of hospitalization in Baltimore in 2007 were twice as high than in Maryland and Washington.
“MRSA is likely a major cause of preventable hospitalization in the city,” said Mayor Sheila Dixon.
“It’s important we act now. Good policy eventually leads to good health.”
State Sen. Lisa Gladden, D-Baltimore, said she is drafting legislation requiring local health departments to provide data similar to what was outlined in these reports to the state health department.
“Quite frankly, when I hear the word ‘MRSA,’ I still get scared,” she said.
Multiple cases of MRSA were reported in Howard and Anne Arundel public schools in 2007.
