Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Staphylococcus aureus is a common bacterium or germ which commonly lives in the nose and on the skin. Most people who carry the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria do not have an infection. Sometimes people develop infections with this bacterium and require treatment. Infection in the blood is called bacteremia.
When common antibiotics are not able to destroy Staphylococcus aureus, the bacterium is called “resistant”, or MRSA. MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Infections caused by MRSA are not more serious than infections caused by the regular Staphylococcus aureus bacterium. However, only a few antibiotics will treat MRSA infections.
MRSA rates
The Ottawa Hospital monitors the amount of bloodstream infections with MRSA that patients get while in the hospital. We report these numbers to the Ministry of Health every three months.
MRSA bacteremia nosocomial cases
Civic Campus | General Campus | The Rehabilitation Centre | |||||||
| Quarterly | Nosoc. Cases | *Pt Days | Incidence per 1000 pt days | Nosoc. Cases | *Pt Days | Incidence per 1000 pt days | Nosoc. Cases | *Pt Days | Incidence per 1000 pt days |
Fiscal Year 2025-2026 | |||||||||
Q1 – Apr to Jun | 0 | 60,751 | 0.00 | 0 | 58,351 | 0.00 | 0 | 6,083 | 0.00 |
Q2 – Jul to Sep | 0 | 61,487 | 0.00 | <5 | 59,816 | 0.02 | 0 | 6,264 | 0.00 |
Q3 – Oct to Dec | <5 | 62,895 | 0.03 | <5 | 59,749 | 0.03 | 0 | 6,156 | 0.00 |
Q4 – Jan to Mar | <5 | 61,593 | 0.03 | 0 | 58,810 | 0.00 | 0 | 5,862 | 0.00 |