Immediate action urged as MRSA in children rises
Researchers have called for urgent action to tackle rising rates of infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus in children.
They found a rapid rise over 10 years in the incidence of MRSA infection
in children as well as in adults. Rates among children had previously
been thought to be low because they spend less time in hospital, usually
separate from adult services.
In 1991, 5 per cent of all blood samples positive for S aureus in adults
and children were resistant to methicillin. By 2000, this proportion
had reached 42 per cent.
A new analysis of reports filed to the Health Protection Agency communicable
disease surveillance centre between 1990 and 2001 showed 376 reports
of MRSA among children up to the age of 15 years. The numbers of MRSA-positive
samples as a proportion of all S aureus infections in children rose from
four (0.9 per cent) in 1990 to 77 (13.1 per cent) in 2001. Infants under
one year accounted for 53 per cent of cases. It was not known where infections
were acquired.
The authors warn that MRSA infections are usually resistant to multiple
antibiotics, with vancomycin resistance increasing. Action must be taken
now to ensure that infection rates do not rise to adult levels, the authors
urge. They call for an immediate national review of risk factors and
for control measures to be put in place.
An accompanying editorial by a US microbiologist says that MRSA among
children in the community could make common childhood skin infections,
such as impetigo, extremely difficult to treat. He adds that, in his
experience, hospital-acquired MRSA in children is often related to new
staff carrying MRSA acquired at other hospitals (Archives of Disease in Childhood 2004;89:378).
Paediatric pharmacist Ghi Pei Khoo, team leader women and children, St
George’s Hospital, London, said that her special care baby unit
was careful in its choice of antibiotics, maintaining awareness of resistance
patterns. She added that barrier nursing was one of the most effective
means to control infection and that these measures were always used with
babies transferred to the St George’s unit from other hospitals. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal