I will be debating my esteemed colleague, Dr. Dan Morgan (University of Maryland) on the use of contact precautions for the control of endemic MRSA and VRE at the 2016 ID Week National Meeting (October 2016).The topic is contentious with many, myself included, on the side of not employing contact precautions for the control of endemic MRSA and VRE. A robust and highly reliable horizontal infection prevention program is generally sufficient to control these pathogens, as has been our experience (summarized here).
More recently, a paper published by colleagues of mine in California, supports our horizontal approach to controlling endemic pathogens, suggesting that elimination of routine contact precautions for MRSA and VRE can be done safely.
Looking forward to the debate.
