MRSA testing in Orange County is very important in detecting the presence of MRSA. We are all born with an innate desire and this is mostly observed in early childhood to find out what is inside our noses. For infection preventionists and microbiologists, some of them extend this interest to people’s noses. Whilst a lot of people could wonder why you would want to do that, the question in the mind of a clinical microbiologist is: Which method is effective?
Understanding why you could be having MRSA in your nose
Nearly 55 to 10% of people in the USA are colonized by Staphylococcus aureus which is resistant to methicillin and one of the most common places for colonization is the holes in your nose or the nares. For people who are very ill and need admission to an ICU or who are undergoing an operation, colonization with MRSA is a risk factor for developing a serious infection that could cause death. Nearly 20000 people in the US die of MRSA infections each year. Under certain circumstances, if there is an MRSA in your nose, your doctor may want to know about it and help you remove it.
When should patients be screened for MRSA?
It is important to know when to screen patients for MRSA. MRSA is actively debated and some people argue that it is not worth the significant funds needed to do it effectively. It has been noted that funds targeting one organism may be better spent on different interventions such as preoperative antiseptic scrubs. These interventions would prevent other types of infections.
Another reason for doing MRSA testing in certain patients is if it is required by the law in the state they work in. To screen people’s noses for MRSA, health workers should swab the nares of the patient. Flocked swabs or rayon-tipped swabs are commonly used to do the work. There is enough evidence that flocked swabs could improve yield for MRSA screening compared to rayon swabs. However, in another small lab comparison with spiked specimens, results were equivalent between flocked swabs and rayon-tipped swabs.
Whilst e Swabs are a good collection mode and possibly have some advantages over traditional swabs, some labs use traditional swabs.
Benefits of molecular testing for MRSA
Molecular testing for MRSA may offer TAT relative to culture-based testing and improved sensitivity but at a markedly higher cost. Molecular testing in studies demonstrates improved sensitivity that is relative to culture but the specificity isn’t as good compared to culture.
MRSA testing in Orange County that uses molecular testing has two main approaches. Each of these approaches has advantages and disadvantages. We have the single locus testing that targets sequences that span the staphylococcal cassette chromosome that harbors SCCmec and orfX. Variability in the SCCmec can lead to false negatives if assay primers are of low binding affinity despite the presence of functional mecA. Also, single-locus testing leads to some false positives where SCCmec primer binding sites are typically intact but mecA is not present.
