Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons^™

Viewpoint: A Response To "Screening And Isolation To Control Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus: Sense, Nonsense, And Evidence", Kevin T. Kavanagh, Lindsay Calderon, Daniel Saman

Biological Sciences Faculty and Staff Research

Surveillance and isolation for the prevention of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a controversial topic, one that causes heated debate and appears to be surrounded by both politics and industrial conflicts-of-interest. There have been calls from numerous authors for a movement away from rigid mandates and toward an evidence-based medicine approach. However, much of the evidence can be viewed with an entirely different interpretation. Two major studies with negative findings have had an adverse impact on recommendations regarding active detection and isolation (ADI) for MRSA. However the negative findings in these studies can be explained by shortcomings in study …