Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of skin infections such as boils, abscesses and skin sores. It may also cause more severe bone, joint and bloodstream infections. We are seeing more resistant forms of Staphylococcus aureus called MRSA in the hospital environment, but now also from communities. Our project has found that at the Royal Darwin Hospital community MRSA causes disease in younger and healthier patients than hospital MRSA. It is probably emerging as a new epidemic from Aboriginal communities where skin infections due to scabies, tinea and skin sores are very common and where domestic crowding leads to spread of these infections. Women and children are particularly at risk. Controlling this epidemic will involve novel community based strategies and improvements in health hardware.

This work will provide solid evidence for the importance and size of the community MRSA epidemic in the Top End and raise awareness of the importance of combating this by improvements in skin health in Aboriginal communities.