Community-associated Methicillin-resistant<i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>, Minnesota, 2000–2003

Jessica Buck, Kathryn Como‐Sabetti, Kathleen Harriman, Richard Danila, David Boxrud, Anita Glennen, Ruth Lynfield

Emerging infectious diseases · 2005 · 76 citations · 33 references

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Abstract

We compared characteristics of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) and CA-MRSA invasive disease identified in Minnesota from 2000 through 2003. A total of 586 patients with SSTIs and 65 patients with invasive disease were identified. Patients with invasive disease were more likely to be smokers (p = 0.03), and report a history of immunosuppressive therapy (p = 0.03), emphysema (p = 0.011), or injection drug use (p = 0.020) than were SSTI patients. Invasive disease isolates were less likely to be susceptible to ciprofloxacin (p = 0.002) and clindamycin (p = 0.001) and more likely to have healthcare-associated pulsed-field gel electrophoresis subtypes than SSTI isolates (p<0.001). Patients with invasive disease may have had healthcare exposures that put them at risk of acquiring healthcare-associated MRSA and which were not exclusion criteria in the CA-MRSA case definition. Continued surveillance of MRSA is needed to better characterize CA-MRSA infections.

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