The incidence of and risk factors for MRSA bacteraemia in an HIV‐infected cohort in the HAART era*

OBJECTIVES: To define the incidence and risk factors for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemia in an HIV-infected population. METHODS: From January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2004, we conducted a retrospective cohort study. We identified all cases of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB), including MRSA, among patients enrolled in the Johns Hopkins Hospital out-patient HIV clinic. A conditional logistic regression model was used to identify risk factors for MRSA bacteraemia compared with methicillin-sensitive SAB and no bacteraemia in unmatched (1:1) and matched (1:4) nested case-control analyses, respectively. RESULTS: Of 4607 patients followed for a total of 11 020 person-years (PY) of follow-up, 216 episodes of SAB occurred (incidence: 19.6 cases per 1000 PY), including 94 cases (43.5%) which were methicillin-resistant. The incidence of MRSA bacteraemia increased from 5.3 per 1000 PY in 2000-2001 to 11.9 per 1000 PY in 2003-2004 (P=0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that independent predictors of MRSA bacteraemia (vs. no bacteraemia) were injection drug use (IDU), end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and CD4 count <200 cells/microL. CONCLUSIONS: MRSA bacteraemia was an increasingly common diagnosis in our HIV-infected cohort, especially in patients with history of IDU, low CD4 cell count and ESRD.