• Marilyn C Roberts and David B No.
• Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Electronic address: marilynr@u.washington.edu.
• Am J Infect Control. 2014 Jun 1; 42 (6): 591-6.

BackgroundMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible S aureus (MSSA) were isolated from environment surfaces sampled from 33 Washington State fire stations.MethodsSamples were collected by fire personnel using commercial testing swabs. One to 6 surfaces were sampled per swab with 20 swabs per station. Biochemical tests were used to confirm MRSA and MSSA isolates. A short survey designed to collect information on cleaning procedures in the stations was included in the kits.ResultsMRSA was isolated from 8.0% and MSSA from 18.5% of the 653 samples. Nineteen fire stations (58.0%) were MRSA positive, 27 stations (82.0%) were MSSA positive, and 14 stations (42.4%) were positive for both MSSA and MRSA. Three stations (9.0%) were negative for MSSA and MRSA. Twelve fire stations (37.5%) reported fire service professionals with MRSA needing medical care. Positive controls were detected at levels of >10(2) CFU/mL and negative controls were negative.ConclusionsThe kit system allowed sampling of >2,000 surfaces from fire stations across Washington State. This is the first time an estimate of the level of MRSA-infected fire personnel has been determined from multiple districts within a single state. Further work is needed to determine if these data can be extrapolated to other career-based fire stations across the country.Copyright © 2014 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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