[Current issues of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: epidemiology, diagnostics, prevention, and therapy]

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) play an important role in hospitals today. Internationally and also within individual countries, its frequency differs considerably. Apart from routine microbiological diagnostics, screening at hospital admission is considered to be of great importance, either to introduce infection control measures as recommended by the Robert Koch Institute, or epidemiologically whether a patient was already colonized at admission. Despite the widespread opinion that patients with MRSA must be isolated in single rooms, no scientific data support that measure in the endemic setting. On the other hand, it is broadly accepted that standard infection control practices, predominantly hand disinfection, are clearly the basic requirement for preventing the transmission of pathogens.