The Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Infection Controls

Background: Multi-resistant organisms (MROs), the bacteria that are resistant to a number of different antibiotics, have been very popular around the world in recent years. They are very difficult to treat but highly infectious in humans. MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is one of the MROs. It is believed that in 2007 more people died of MRSA than of AIDS worldwide. In Australia “there are about 2000 people per year who have a bloodstream infection with the MRSA germ and the vast majority of those get them from health care procedure” (Nader, 2005). It is acknowledged as a significant challenge to Australian hospitals for MRSA infection control. Nursing professionals are in urgent need of the study of MRSA nosocomial infection controls. Rationale: This review provides insight into the hand washing and isolation infection-control strategies for MRSA. Electronic searches were undertaken of Medine, CINAHL, Health source: Nursing/Academic, internurse.com, Meditext and Google Advanced Search. Primary search words and phrases such as infection control, Multi-resistant organisms, MRSA, hand hygiene, hand wash, alcohol based handrub, isolation and environment control were used. The important technologies on those two aspects worldwide are well surveyed, compared, contrasted, and discussed. Purpose: The review is to do a complete survey on the hand washing and isolation technologies of infection controls for MRSA and try to provide some possible recommendations for Australian hospitals.