Even in a post-pandemic world, frontline health care workers face many occupational challenges, and exposure to infection is among them. Now, University of Cincinnati scientists are working to minimize health care workers' exposure to MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a type of staph bacteria that's become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections. Most MRSA infections occur in people who've been in hospitals or other health care settings, making it a particular risk to those who work in such facilities, and a team of UC researchers has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to conduct environmental surveillance at University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
MRSA is primarily transmitted through person-to-person contact and contact with contaminated surfaces, but experts have emerging evidence of the presence of MRSA in the air in hospital settings. As of 2021, Ohio had an incidence of MRSA that's greater than the national incidence, according to the state department of health. The study's lead author is Sripriya Nannu Shankar, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Environmental and Industrial Hygiene in the Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences at the College of Medicine.
Shankar and colleagues will try to get a better grasp on the presence of MRSA in the air and the significance of airborne transmission of MRSA. Researchers will conduct laboratory and field work a.