Recommendations for the prevention and control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates (MRSA) in hospitals and other healthcare facilities

The Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Control (KRINKO) at the Robert Koch-Institute Berlin published the “Recommendations for Preventing and Controlling Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strains in Hospitals and Other Medical Facilities“ in the Federal Health Gazette in 1999 [1]. These recommendations were translated for the current edition of GMS Krankenhaushygiene Interdisziplinär by the German Society of Hospital Hygiene. KRINKO's work is legitimated by § 23 para. 2 of the Infection Protection Act. Regarding the legal nature of the KRINKO recommendations, it should be noted that they are neither a formal act or an administrative regulation. The KRINKO recommendations are instead an evidence-based consensus of particularly qualified experts. The consensus is reached by including the Federal States' authorities and all competent professional bodies and associations. This is to guarantee that the KRINKO recommendations reflect the state-of-the-art of medical science, and are met with a high degree of user acceptance. The recommendations are published in the Federal Health Gazette and on the RKI's Internet pages (http://www.rki.de/). Link to the German original edition of the MRSA recommendations