Detection of Staphylococcus aureus including MRSA on environmental surfaces in a jail setting

We examined jail environmental surfaces to explore whether they might serve as reservoirs of viable methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We swabbed 132 surfaces, inoculated primary and secondary mannitol salts and oxacillin-resistant screening agar, and used API tests to identify S. aureus and E-tests to determine methicillin/oxacillin resistance. We recovered S. aureus from 10 (7.6%) surfaces; eight (6.1%) isolates were MRSA. We ran pulsed-field gel electrophoresis on six resistant isolates and observed three patterns, one of which was identical to that identified in a previous study of inmates' nasal specimens. Finding MRSA-contaminated surfaces on a variety of environmental surfaces in the absence of an overt outbreak emphasizes that correctional facilities should have protocols for environmental cleaning as a component of MRSA prevention.