Five percent of MRSA patients die

Washington -- Five percent of the some 368,600 patients treated in U.S. hospitals in 2005 for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus died, a government report found.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found most of the patients who died of the antibiotic resistant staph infection were elderly or low income.

Approximately 332 Medicare patients per 100,000 were hospitalized for MRSA compared to 184 Medicaid patients and 29 patients with private insurance. The rate for uninsured patients was 43 admissions per 100,000 people, the report said.

Men were more likely to be hospitalized for MRSA -- at 107 admissions per 100,000 -- than were women -- at 92 admissions.

People in the South were 27 percent more likely -- at 113 admissions per 100,000 -- to be hospitalized for MRSA than those in the Northeast and Midwest -- 89 admissions per 100,000 population. People in the West fell in between at 96 admissions per 100,000.

The AHRQ report is based on data from Infections with MRSA in U.S. Hospitals between 1993 and 2005.

© 2007 United Press International.