Invasive Staphylococcus aureus Infection Surveillance

Key points

  • The Invasive Staphylococcus aureus Infection Surveillance Program collects data for describing incidence and trends of these infections.
  • Public health professionals and healthcare providers can use these data to further public health research and improve health outcomes.

Overview

Aims

As part of CDC's Emerging Infections Program (EIP) Healthcare-Associated Infections - Community Interface Activity (HAIC), the Invasive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) Infection Surveillance Program identifies and monitors:

  • Changes in incidence of hospital-onset (HO), healthcare-associated community-onset (HACO), and community-associated (CA) invasive, methicillin-resistant and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MRSA and MSSA) infections.
  • Populations with invasive S. aureus that would benefit from improved prevention and treatment activities.
  • The impact of established prevention strategies.
  • Molecular and microbiologic characteristics of strains causing invasive S. aureus infections.

Process

To collect this information, trained professionals conduct active population- and laboratory-based surveillance in 7 EIP sites. CDC and EIP staff clean, analyze, and disseminate the data through annual reports and peer-reviewed publications.

Purpose

Public health and healthcare professionals can use these data to further research and improve S. aureus prevention strategies.

Highlights

In 2022

In 2022 compared to 2021, HACO invasive S. aureus infections were more common, but there was little change for HO and CA infections. 1

Patients with recent COVID-19 contributed substantially to increases in hospital-onset MRSA bacteremia during 2020-2022.2

Explore the data

Access and create data visualizations

HAICViz is an interactive data dashboard that provides information included in the reports below as well as case rates and deaths over time.
HAICViz

Annual reports

Publications using Invasive S. aureus Infection Surveillance Program data

See Also NCBI Collection

About the data

EIP Site Area under Surveillance
California San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties
Connecticut Statewide
Georgia Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale counties
Maryland Baltimore City and County
Minnesota Hennepin and Ramsey counties
New York Monroe County
Tennessee Davidson County

For Connecticut and Georgia, the MSSA surveillance area is a subset of the total MRSA surveillance area. In Connecticut, the MSSA surveillance area includes the South Central Connecticut and Naugatuck Valley Planning Regions. In Georgia, the MSSA surveillance area is Fulton County.

When S. aureus is isolated from a normally sterile body site in a patient who lives in the surveillance area. Sterile body sites can include:

  • Blood
  • Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
  • Pleural fluid
  • Peritoneal fluid
  • Pericardial fluid
  • Bone
  • Joint/synovial fluid
  • Internal body site (e.g., lymph node, brain)

The invasive S. aureus infection surveillance program is an active population- and laboratory-based surveillance system. Surveillance staff regularly query clinical laboratories to identify microbiological test results among persons living in a defined geographic area.

Resources

Case report forms for EIP surveillance staff

Print
Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)
  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2025. Emerging Infections Program, Healthcare-Associated Infections – Community Interface Surveillance Report, Invasive Staphylococcus aureus, 2022. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/hai/eip/pdf/2022-MRSA-Report-508.pdf
  2. Biggs HM, Li R, Jackson KA, Nadle J, Petit S, Ray SM, Lynfield R, Como-Sabetti K, Dumyati G, Gellert A, Walsh M, Schaffner W, Baggs J, See I. Trends in Incidence and Epidemiology of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia, Six Emerging Infections Program Surveillance Sites, 2005-2022. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2025 May 12;12(6):ofaf282. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaf282. PMID: 40453873; PMCID: PMC12125674