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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Subcutaneous Infection of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)
Published on: February 10, 2011
[Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in medical and paramedical personnel returned from work in a foreign
M R Vriens1, A Troelstra, E P Yzerman
1Afd. Chirurgie, Universitair Medisch Centrum, Utrecht.
Abstract:
The cultures of two patients of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (IC) of the Medical Centre of Utrecht University were found positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). A male nurse turned out to be the source, 4 months after his return from working in an English hospital. Cultures were, by mistake, not taken directly on arrival from abroad. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis proved MRSA strains from both source and the 2 patients to be identical to a strain which was epidemic in Great Britain but had never occurred in the Netherlands. The IC has meanwhile been closed; at source investigation, 14 other patients and six staff members were found MRSA-positive. The policy in the hospital is to screen health care workers for MRSA carriership on return from an hospital abroad. The success of the policy depends strongly on the cooperation of health care workers in this matter.
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