Three years' experience of screening for meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in obstetrics

There are few data on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening in obstetrics, a largely healthy population that should be at lower risk for MRSA than most hospitalized populations. From January 2009 to December 2011 nose swabs were screened from 5548 of 21,770 (25.5%) women who delivered at Birmingham Women's Hospital. Only 29 (0.5%) were MRSA positive: MRSA infections occurred later in three cases. MRSA infections occurred in a further 13 mother-infant pairs, including six cases where mothers were MRSA screen negative. Seventeen mothers had risk factors for MRSA. MRSA is not widespread in obstetrics, and large-scale screening of nasal swabs is of limited value in preventing MRSA-related morbidity in this population.