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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The rates of antibiotic-resistant infections increased in children across the country between 2001 and 2006 according to a recent study.
Researchers focused on strains of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus resistant to the antibiotic methicillin (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA). Of 21,009 infections that occurred during the five-year period, 21.6 percent were resistant to methicillin. MRSA rates increased from 11.8 percent in 2001 to 28.1 percent in 2006.
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"This represents a 16.3 percent increase in MRSA during these six years for all pediatric head and neck S. aureus infections," the authors write.
The highest proportion of MRSA was found in the ears, followed by the sinonasal and the head and neck groups.
During the past decade, community-acquired MRSA infections have become more common in prisons, nursing homes and among chronically ill patients and in individuals without established risk factors, the authors write.
"Further studies linking the microbiologic and clinical behaviors of MRSA are warranted to gain additional insight into the dynamic existence of this organism," study authors wrote.
SOURCE: Archives of Otolaryngoly, Head & Neck Surgery, 2009;135[1]:14-16
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