Air and surface contamination patterns of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on eight acute hospital wards

Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be recovered from hospital air and from environmental surfaces. This poses a potential risk of transmission to patients.

To investigate associations between MRSA isolates recovered from air and environmental surfaces with those from patients when undertaking extensive patient and environmental sampling.

This was a prospective observational study of patients and their environment in eight wards of a 700-bed tertiary care hospital during 2010 and 2011. Sampling of patients, air and surfaces was carried out on all ward bays, with more extended environmental sampling in ward high-dependency bays and at particular times of the day. The genetic relatedness of isolates was determined by DNA microarray profiling and spa typing.

MRSA was recovered from 30/706 (4.3%) patients and from 19/132 (14.4%) air samples. On 9/132 (6.8%) occasions both patient and air samples yielded MRSA. In 32 high-dependency bays, MRSA was recovered from 12/161 (7.4%) patients, 8/32 (25%) air samples, and 21/644 (3.3%) environmental surface samples. On 10/132 (7.6%) occasions, MRSA was isolated from air in the absence of MRSA-positive patients. Patient demographic data combined with spa typing and DNA microarray profiling revealed four likely transmission clusters, where patient and environmental isolates were deemed to be very closely related.

Air sampling yielded MRSA on frequent occasions, especially in high-dependency bays. Environmental and air sampling combined with patient demographic data, spa typing and DNA microarray profiling indicated the presence of clusters that were not otherwise apparent.