Bacterial DNA sequence used to map an infection outbreak

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 14:01 in Health & Medicine

For the first time, researchers have used DNA sequencing to help bring an infectious disease outbreak in a hospital to a close. Researchers used advanced DNA sequencing technologies to confirm the presence of an ongoing outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a Special Care Baby Unit in real time. This assisted in stopping the outbreak earlier, saving possible harm to patients. This approach is much more accurate than current methods used to detect hospital outbreaks.

Read the whole article on Science Daily

More from Science Daily

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net