No studies to avoid MRSA in nursing homes

BELFAST , Northern Ireland, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, can be deadly, but there is little on how to prevent it in nursing homes, an Irish review found.

Lead review author Carmel Hughes of Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland said much of the research on MRSA to date has focused primarily on hospitals, but nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable.

MRSA spreads easily -- most commonly via the hands of healthcare workers -- and many antibiotics are ineffective.

"Many different ways of preventing the spread of MRSA have been studied, particularly in hospitals. However, we found no studies that looked at ways of preventing the spread of MRSA in nursing homes for older people," the reviewers said in a statement.

Hughes said introducing effective interventions in hospitals might be easier because hospitals have isolation facilities and greater access to infection control expertise, but infection control training is not routinely available in nursing homes.

The findings are published in the The Cochrane Library.