Spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a neonatal intensive unit associated with understaffing, overcrowding and mixing of patients.

Over the period May-June 1999, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was registered in eight newborns in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Department of Pediatrics, Ullevål University Hospital (UUH) in Oslo. Seven were infected or colonized with an indistinguishable strain, detected at the NICU, and one patient with a slightly different PFGE type (i.e.