{"doi":"10.1017/ice.2021.350","title":"Understanding short-term transmission dynamics of methicillin-resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> in the patient room","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: (MRSA) transmission between patients and their immediate environment. We conducted a real-life microbiological evaluation of environmental MRSA contamination in hospital rooms in relation to recent patient activity. DESIGN: Observational pilot study. SETTING: Two hospitals, hospital 1 in Zurich, Switzerland, and hospital 2 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. PATIENTS: Inpatients with MRSA colonization or infection. METHODS: At baseline, the groin, axilla, nares, dominant hands of 10 patients and 6 environmental high-touch surfaces in their rooms were sampled. Cultures were then taken of the patient hand and high-touch surfaces 3 more times at 90-minute intervals. After each swabbing, patients' hands and surfaces were disinfected. Patient activity was assessed by interviews at hospital 1 and analysis of video footage at hospital 2. A contamination pressure score was created by multiplying the number of colonized body sites with the activity level of the patient. RESULTS: In total, 10 patients colonized and/or infected with MRSA were enrolled; 40 hand samples and 240 environmental samples were collected. At baseline, 30% of hands and 20% of high-touch surfaces yielded MRSA. At follow-up intervals, 8 (27%) of 30 patient hands, and 10 (6%) of 180 of environmental sites were positive. Activity of the patient explained 7 of 10 environmental contaminations. Patients with higher contamination pressure score showed a trend toward higher environmental contamination. CONCLUSION: Environmental MRSA contamination in patient rooms was highly dynamic and was likely driven by the patient's MRSA body colonization pattern and the patient activity.","journal":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","year":2021,"id":199341,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7182,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":776449,"name":"Nora Mang","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":405262,"name":"Kristen Gibson","orcid":"0000-0002-5648-5209","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":692831,"name":"Kyle J. Gontjes","orcid":"0000-0001-8671-7990","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":425049,"name":"Marco Cassone","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":257768,"name":"Silvio D. Brugger","orcid":"0000-0001-9492-9088","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":306056,"name":"Lona Mody","orcid":"0000-0002-0260-8007","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":775776,"name":"Hugo Sax","orcid":"0000-0002-1532-2198","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":775775,"name":"Aline Wolfensberger","orcid":"0000-0001-9028-0007","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":24,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:40.558460Z","pmid":"34448445","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}