Inference and control of the nosocomial transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Pei, Sen; Morone, Flaviano; Liljeros, Fredrik; Makse, Hernán; Shaman, Jeffrey L

In this study, we omitted representation of heterogeneity across different wards. This simplification is valid for the study Swedish hospitals, as we observed no infection clusters and the model reproduced key statistics of observations well. However, in other settings, clustering analysis and ward information may be necessary before the application of the inference system. Should certain wards suffer a much higher rate of infection, a separate suite of parameters can be defined and inferred for these wards, using priors that better represent this more intense transmission. We also only considered transmission among patients staying in the same ward. In the future, more contact information such as healthcare workers shared by a group of patients could be incorporated into the contact network. In addition, as the community defined in the model may include non-sampled hospitals, inferred community risk may have been overestimated as it also included contributions from those healthcare facilities outside the network.