Information and Advice about MRSA for:

Family Caregivers

If Someone in the Home has MRSA

Outside of healthcare settings, there is little risk of transmitting organisms to persons at risk of disease from MRSA / VRE; therefore, healthy people are at low risk of getting infected. In the home, the following precautions should be followed:

• Caregivers should wash their hands with soap and water after physical contact with the infected or colonized person and before leaving the home.
• Towels used for drying hands after contact should be used only once.
• Disposable gloves should be worn if contact with body fluids is expected, and hands should be washed after removing the gloves.
• Linens should be changed and washed if they are soiled and on a routine basis.
• The patient's environment should be cleaned routinely and when soiled with body fluids.
• Notify doctors and other healthcare personnel who provide care for the patient that the patient is colonized/infected with a multidrug-resistant organism.

Additional Resources:

• Personal Prevention of MRSA
• Treatment of MRSA Infections