Washington University researchers collected bacteria samples from more than 100 families with children who had been treated for MRSA infections. They found MRSA on multiple household surfaces, including towels, bedsheets and personal hygiene items.
But the new findings underscore how households are an important incubator, too, said lead researcher Dr. Stephanie Fritz, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Washington University in St. Louis.
“I see many children [with MRSA] who come in with recurrent infections,” said Fritz. “And often, multiple members of the family are affected, too.”
“The household environment plays a key role in the transmission of MRSA in the community setting,” senior study author Dr. Stephanie Fritz of Washington University in St. Louis said in a statement. “This suggests that aggressive attempts to rid MRSA from household surfaces may significantly lower the number of MRSA infections we’re seeing now.”
“We really wanted to get to the root of the problem and understand how people acquire MRSA,” said Fritz, by understanding how MRSA gets into households, and spreads, particularly from person-to person contact and sharing items, as well as the role cats and dogs might play.
“It’s a hardy bacterium that lives on surfaces,” said study coauthor, Dr. Stephanie Fritz, an associate professor in the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Washington University in St. Louis. “People can pick it up and bring it home and the house can become colonized.”
New research led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis sheds light on how the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is introduced into households and how it can spread among family members.
As “This Is Public Health” Ambassador, Fritz Lab Master of Public Health Intern Noble Salwan, was asked by ASPPH to make a video bringing awareness to the field of Public Health.
Stephanie A. Fritz, MD, (left) an associate professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, analyzes the bacteria commonly known as staph with Carol Muenks, a clinical research coordinator. Fritz and her research team have found that prescribing antibiotics is warranted for children with minor staph infections. The drugs help to reduce the risk of recurrent infections.
In households of children with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, pet dogs and cats often were colonized with S. aureus. In addition, the S. aureus strains colonizing the pets were likely to be concordant with those found on humans and/or their environmental surfaces within the household.
Pets “may serve as a reservoir for ongoing transmission [of MRSA] in the household,” said study co-author Dr. Stephanie Fritz, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Contamination was found most frequently on bed linens, TV remote controls, and bathroom hand towels, Dr. Stephanie A. Fritz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and her colleagues report in JAMA Pediatrics.