30 percent of all people carry a form of staph in their nose that is resistant to antibiotics. The bacteria, known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA can also live on a person's skin.

Doctor David Pombo, the Medical Director of Microbiology and Molecular Physiology Division of Infectious Diseases and Department of Pathology at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah has been studying MRSA for years.

Pombo is visiting Oahu for a month as part of a Summer Staph Instititute being held at the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kakaako. Hawaii also has a local chapter of the Association of Practitioners for Infection Control whose mission is to improve health and patient safety by reducing the risks of infection.

“I think it's a very good effort,” said Pombo who held a lecture Friday evening at the medical school. “I'm very impressed with the efforts.”

Pombo says the tiny bug, which looks like a cluster of grapes under a microscope, is a growing problem for hospitals across the country. He says outpatient care at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City has seen a “seven fold” increase in the rate of MRSA infections over the past five years.

"It can be transferred in the hospital via contaminated hands to wounds of intravenous sites and it can be transmitted among patients in the out-patient setting,” he said.

A survey by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology shows 46.3 out of every 1,000 hospital patients had active MRSA. The rate of infection was ten times greater than previously thought by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Called the National Prevalence Study of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in U.S. Healthcare Facilities, the report was released in June.

Pombo says in the survey Hawaii “came out way ahead of every other state in terms of the incidence of both (MRSA) infected and colonized patients.”

He says one reason could be Hawaii’s climate. “Tropical climates have a higher incidence of staph infections,” says Pombo. In fact he says, researchers at the University of Hawaii have collected MRSA samples from ocean water, but it’s not known if salt water is conducive to the transfer of staph aureus in people.

“Staph aureus is known to be salt tolerant,” he says, “but even I was surprised by the number of staph you can get from some of the local beaches.”

17 states require hospitals to make staph infection rates public, but Hawaii is not one of them. However hospitals in the state do implement infection control programs.

Pombo says hospital patients can help stop the spread of MRSA by becoming more aware of the problem and taking immediate action if they notice a sore that is swelling or turning red.

Pombo says that’s especially important with a recent mutation of staph aureus that attacks hair follicles and then spreads into the surrounding tissue.

"People can't let things go as long as their used to it seems without having pretty significant infections," said Pombo. “If you had a little hair follicle…that was tender and pustular…that could be a staph infection.”

One of the best ways to prevent the spread of staph in hospitals and among the general public says Pombo is to do what your mom always told you to do and “wash your hands.”


John A. Burns School of Medicine Website