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Benefits and Drawbacks of Universal Surveillance of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
TO THE EDITOR:
I'm concerned by 2 aspects of the study by Robicsek and colleagues (1). First, no mention is made of independent review board approval or informed consent from the experimental participants. Being identified as a carrier of MRSA has many practical (and potentially harmful) consequences on the hospital care of a patient and for options regarding posthospital care. “Harming through protection” has recently been discussed in the context of this type of study (2). The Office for Human Research Protections has backed off from its recent position that these studies require full review. However, a thrombocytopenic patient who has a substantial, transfusion-requiring nosebleed as a result of “decolonization” triggered by his unknowing participation in a study might view the situation differently from the …
