Infection Control Today magazine reports that researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health have found the infectious bacterium methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at wastewater treatment plants in the U.S.
“MRSA is well known for causing difficult-to-treat and potentially fatal bacterial infections in hospital patients, but since the late 1990s it has also been infecting otherwise healthy people in community settings,” the magazine reported.
Amy R. Sapkota, assistant professor in the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and research study leader, told the magazine, “MRSA infections acquired outside of hospital settings are on the rise and can be just as severe as hospital-acquired MRSA. However, we still do not fully understand the potential environmental sources of MRSA or how people in the community come in contact with this microorganism.”
The research study was published in the November issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health and University of Nebraska Medical Center collected wastewater samples at two treatment plants in the Mid-Atlantic region and two in the Midwest. Both plants recycle wastewater for use in spray irrigation.
They found MRSA as well as methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus at all four sites. Only one plant had the bacteria in its effluent, and that plant that does not regularly chlorinate. Read more at http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2012/11/mrsa-identified-in-us-wastewater-treatment-plants.aspx.
