Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Statutory notification

• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonisation or infection is notifiable in Western Australia.
• See notifiable communicable disease case definitions (Word 1.29MB).
• Private and public laboratories that identify VRE cases are required to notify patient details to the Microbiology Department, PathWest Laboratory Medicine Western Australia (LMWA) Gram-positive Typing Laboratory* at Fiona Stanley Hospital.
• See also description of statutory medical notifications in Western Australia.

Public health summary

• Infectious agent: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
• Transmission: Person to person by direct contact with another person with a purulent lesion or purulent discharge or from a person with asymptomatic carriage (colonisation). Auto infection is also common.
• Incubation period: Variable.
• Infectious period: As long as purulent lesions continue to drain or the carrier state persists.
• Case exclusion: See recommended exclusion for healthcare workers in Guidelines for the Screening and Management of MRSA in Healthcare Workers (exernal site). Healthcare facility patients colonised or infected with MRSA should be managed in a single room with dedicated bathroom facilities as per the Guidelines for the Screening and Management of Multi-resistant Organisms in Healthcare Facilities (PDF 841KB).
• Contact exclusion: Do not exclude.
• Treatment: Antibiotic treatment for clinical infections as recommended by the doctor.
• Immunisation: None available.
• Case follow-up: Is conducted by hospitals, public health units and the Communicable Disease Control Directorate, as required.

Information and resources for health providers

• Management of CA-MRSA – information for healthcare providers (PDF 1.2MB)
• MRSA decolonisation treatment – information for healthcare providers (PDF 1.2MB)
• MRSA decolonisation treatment – information for consumers (Healthy WA)
• Guidelines for the Screening and Management of Multi-resistant Organisms in Healthcare Facilities (PDF 841KB).

Notifiable disease data and reports

MRSA is a notifiable condition via laboratory notification in WA. *The Gram-positive Typing Laboratory PathWest LMWA works in collaboration with the Antimicrobial Resistance Infectious Diseases Research (AMR-ID) Laboratory, Murdoch University to undertake further molecular typing and characterisation of isolates.. MRSA surveillance data are therefore reported separately to other notifiable disease data. The latest  Western Australian Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Epidemiology and Typing Report 2022-2023 (PDF 1.5MB).