Primary studies included in this broad synthesis

Voluntary reporting of Staphylococcus aureus ba cteraemia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 200 9 Page 1 Key Points This report covers voluntary reports of bacteraemia due to Staphylococcus aureus , made to the Health Protection Agency from January 2000 up to December 2009. The analysis dataset comprises all reports of S. aureus isolated from blood cultures . This update describes reports of S. aureus bacteraemia made to the HPA in 2009 from laboratories in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There were 11,115 reports in 2009, comprising 10,039 from England, 585 from Wales and 491 from Northern Ireland . Th is represents a 10.8 % decrease in the number of S. aureus laboratory reports compared to 2008 (12,454 reports) . When the data are grouped by age, the rate per 100,000 population of meticillin s usceptible S. aureus (MSSA) bacteraemia is significantly highe r in males than females across most age groups . The rate for meticillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is significantly higher among older male patients. These patterns are well known and have been described in previous years. A ntibiotic susceptibility testi ng results are presented. These demonstrate that the majority of tested MRSA are resistant to c iprofloxacin and erythromycin , continuing the pattern o f the past four years. The population profile of antibiotic susceptibility for MSSA specimens has not ch ange d since 2008 , and MSSA remains susceptible to a broad range of antibiotics including ciprofloxacin and erythromycin. The downward trend s in S. aureus reports and meticillin resistance/susceptibility in England since 2005 are confirmed by data taken fr om the mandatory reporting system. Northern Ireland and Wales have their own mandatory MRSA bacteraemia reporting schemes and are not covered in this report. Rates were calculated using 200 8 resident population denominators. Age - and sex - specific populat ion denominators for England were calculated using tables of mid - year resident population estimates published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) ( http://www.statistics.gov.uk ). Data were extracted 12 th July 2010 and are provisional as the number of reports for 2009 may increase due to late reporting