In a major break through scientists have for the first time used DNA sequencing to effectively track the spread of, and ultimately contain, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to new research published in the Lancet Infectious Disases. MRSA is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat- infections in humans.
The technique allowed researchers to map and control an MRSA outbreak in a special care baby unit (SCBU) much more effectively than traditional infection control techniques. This has led to hopes that in future, the management of MRSA and other harmful bacterial infections could be vastly improved by the routine use of DNA sequencing technologies.
Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals initially performed a type of DNA sequencing known as whole-genome sequencing on MRSA isolates taken from 12 babies known to have been carrying MRSA during a 6 month period in 2011.
When the MRSA infections first arose, an infection-control team working in the hospital suspected that the cases were linked, but this could not be proven using conventional methods to track and characterise outbreaks, nor was it clear how the infection was spreading and what its source might be. In an attempt to halt the spread of infection, the team recommended standard measures to eradicate MRSA from carriers and a deep clean of the ward where the infections had occurred.
However, when the scientists retrospectively performed DNA sequencing on these MRSA isolates, they were able to confirm that the MRSA strains were closely related.
Moreover, after the samples from parents and visitors to GP’s surgeries were included, experts were able to determine that the outbreak had spread into the community, infecting twice as many people as previously suspected.