Recent Advances in the Detection of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 20% of all documented S. aureus infections are attributable to MRSA, although for some developing countries this value can exceed 80%. Thus the rapid and accurate detection of MRSA in low resource settings (LDR) is becoming essential. Yet conventional microbial detection methods take from 1-5 days to identify MRSA. Recently, new types of automated laboratory methods as well as advances in nucleic acid testing, microfluidic technology, immunosensors, biosensors and point of care testing have reduced the time to detection to <1 hr. This review examines the current limitations and advances in methodologies employed in the rapid detection of MRSA.