Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Dental students in a Seattle study had very high rates of colonization with MRSA, the drug-resistant
strain stockton ca dentist medical of staph, raising new questions about the prevalence of the
bacteria outside of hospitals in community health care settings.
People who are colonized with MRSA carry the bacteria in their nose or on their skin, but they may
or may not have signs or symptoms of infection. They can spread MRSA to others, however.
It is not clear how many people carry MRSA, but studies suggest that health care workers have
slightly higher rates of colonization than the general population, University of Washington professor
of environmental and occupational health Marilyn C. Roberts, PhD, tells WebMD.
MRSA Common in Buffalo Dental Study
In a study reported earlier this year, Roberts and colleagues found a high rate of MRSA colonization
among a group of Seattle-area firefighters.
In their latest investigation conducted at the UAW dental school, the researchers took nasal swabs
from 61 dental students and swabbed 95 surfaces considered potential reservoirs for MRSA.
Thirteen (21%) of the students and eight (8.4%) surfaces from four of the seven clinics harbored
MRSA.
The study was published online today and will appear in the October issue of the American Journal
of Infection Control.
An unrelated study of dental school students and instructors in Buffalo, N.Y., showed an even higher
rate of colonization, with 31% of the 84 people showing evidence of MRSA.
That study was presented at a 2009 meeting of dental researchers held in Miami.
Roberts says the Buffalo findings show that the high MRSA colonization rate reported in her study is
not limited to her institution.
Roberts and the CDC's Srinivasan do agree that more study is needed to develop a better
understanding of the rate of MRSA colonization in non-hospital health care settings.
The extent to which this colonization impacts MRSA infection rates is also not clear, he adds.
"We know a great deal about the infection control challenges related to MRSA in acute care hospital
settings, but we know a lot less about this issue in non-acute care settings such as dental and
dialysis centers and ambulatory surgical centers," Srinivasan says.
Srinivasan says it does not appear that these settings represent a major source of communityacquired MRSA transmission.
2011 WebMD, LLC.. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-mrsa-common-among-some-dental-students/