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Volume 11, Number 11—November 2005
Letter

Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia, Europe

Edine W. Tiemersma*Comments to Author , Dominique L. Monnet†, Nienke Bruinsma*, Robert Skov†, Jos C.M. Monen*, Hajo Grundmann*, and European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System participants
Author affiliations: *National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands; †Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark

Main Article

Table

Absolute numbers, rates of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB), and percentage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS), 2003*

Country Population† (4) % population covered by EARSS‡ Blood culture sets/1,000 inhabitants No. SAB reported to EARSS No. SAB for country§ SAB/100,000 inhabitants§ % MRSA
Austria 8,188,207 42.7 NA 871 2,038 25 15
Bulgaria 7,537,929 100 2 157 149 2¶ 31
Croatia 4,422,248 81.3 7 360 443 10 37
Czech Republic 10,249,216 92.3 11 1,387 1,503 15 7
Denmark 5,384,384 46.2 NA 671 1,451 27 <1
Estonia 1,408,556 100 <1 98 98 7¶ 5
Finland 5,190,785 94.3 27 727 771 15 1
Hungary 10,045,407 100 1 859 859 9¶ 14
Iceland 280,798 100 28 64 64 23 0
Ireland 3,924,140 89.2 NA 1,108 1,243 32 42
Israel 6,116,533 39.7 42 368 926 15 43
Malta 400,420 100 4 122 122 31 43
Poland 38,622,660 24.3 3 166 684 2¶ 19
Romania 22,271,839 59 <1 85 144 <1¶ 46
Slovenia 1,935,677 100 17 299 296 15 13
Spain 40,217,413 24.3 21 1,391 5,731 14 25
Sweden 8,878,085 100 28 1,855 1,760 20 <1

*Only countries that provided hospital background information for at least 60% of the isolates were included; NA, not available.
†Source (4).
‡Population coverage rate as calculated from EARSS hospitals that provided background information was adjusted for nonresponding hospitals as follows: population coverage as calculated divided by proportion of isolates with hospital background information.
§The total number of SAB per country was calculated as follows: number of S. aureus isolates in EARSS divided by adjusted proportion of population covered.
¶These rates are grossly underestimated because of the very low blood culturing rate.

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References
  1. Collignon  P, Nimmo  GR, Gottlieb  T, Gosbell  IB. Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, Australia. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11:554–61.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  2. Tiemersma  EW, Bronzwaer  SL, Lyytikäinen  O, Degener  JE, Schrijnemakers  P, Bruinsma  N, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Europe, 1999–2002. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004;10:1627–34.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  3. European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System. EARSS manual 2004 [cited 2005 July 25]. Available from http://www.earss.rivm.nl
  4. Central Intelligence Agency. The world fact book 2003 [cited 2005 July 26]. Available from http://www.cia.gov/cia/download2003.htm
  5. Health Protection Agency. The second year of the Department of Health's mandatory MRSA bacteraemia surveillance scheme in acute trusts in England: April 2002–March 2003. CDR Weekly. 2003;13:1–9. [cited 2005 July 26]. Available from http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdr/archives/2003/cdr2503.pdf

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Page created: February 17, 2012
Page updated: February 17, 2012
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