Volume 11, Number 11—November 2005
Letter
Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia, Europe
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.
References
- 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
- 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
- European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System. EARSS manual 2004 [cited 2005 July 25]. Available from http://www.earss.rivm.nl
- Central Intelligence Agency. The world fact book 2003 [cited 2005 July 26]. Available from http://www.cia.gov/cia/download2003.htm
- 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