VRSA Case Reported in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting today that a patient at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital has acquired vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) most likely from a lack of antibiotic stewardship. The patient, who had been on dialysis, was transferred from another state and did not acquire the resistant pathogen at Penn, hospital officials say.

The report on Philly.com quotes Neil Fishman, MD, president of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiologists of America (SHEA) and an infectious disease physician at Penn, as saying that about 11 cases of VRSA have been reported nationally, that the infection is not particularly virulent, and that this strain of the Staph bacteria is susceptible to existing antibiotics. To read the news item, CLICK HERE.