1.2 Million U.S. Patients Get Resistant Staph Each Year

In addition, patients need to be assertive in making sure that the staff follows proper infection-control procedures, Warye said.

Jarvis said that basic steps can be taken to curb the rising rate of infection.

First, patients who are most at risk for MRSA need to be identified and tested, he said. Patients who are infected need to be placed in isolation. In addition, health care workers need to follow proper procedures to prevent the spread of MRSA, including washing their hands and disinfecting the environment around the patient.

"Indiscriminate use of antibiotics in both hospitalized and outpatients is part of this problem," Katz added. "So is failure by patients to complete courses of antibiotics as prescribed. And perhaps an even greater influence is the widespread use of antibiotics in feed animals," which also creates resistant strains, he said.

"Having advanced medicine with the introduction of antibiotics, we cannot let it regress by allowing the drugs to become useless. Policies to curtail the spread of resistant germs are urgently needed," Katz said.

More information

For more information on MRSA, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCES: Kathy Warye, chief executive officer, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Washington, D.C.; William Jarvis, M.D., president, Jason and Jarvis Associates, Hilton Head Island, S.C.; David Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director, Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.; June 25, 2007, report,National Prevalence Study of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in U.S. Healthcare Facilities