Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T14:26:10.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and the Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Eli N. Perencevich  and
Debbie M. Treise
Eli N. Perencevich*
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and the Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice, Iowa City VA Medical Center, Iowa City, Iowa
Debbie M. Treise
Affiliation:
College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, Gainesville
*
Iowa City VA Medical Center, 601 Highway 6 West, Suite 3E21, Iowa City, IA 52246 (eliperencevich@uiowa.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How the media communicate and how the scientific community influences the media are important factors to consider in the public health response to emerging pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Social representation theory suggests that the media link “the threatening” to commonplace “anchor representations,” which can serve to educate or to create fear.

Type
Supplement Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 31 , Issue S1: Papers from the Fifth Decennial International Conference on Healthcare-Associated Infections , November 2010 , pp. S48 - S50
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Klevens, RM, Morrison, MA, Nadle, J, et al.Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. JAMA 2007;298(15):1763–1771.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Chambers, HF. The changing epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus? Emerg Infect Dis 2001;7(2):178–182.Google Scholar
3.Hahn, W, Morley, CP, Morrow, C, Epling, JW. The effect of media attention on concern for and medical management of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a multimethod study. J Public Health Manag Pract 2009;15(2):150–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Boyce, T, Murray, E, Holmes, A. What are the drivers of the UK media coverage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the inter-relationships and relative influences? J Hosp Infect 2009;73(4):400–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Moscovici, S. The phenomenon of social representations. In: Farr, R, Moscovici, S, eds. Social Representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1984:3–69.Google Scholar
6.Washer, P, Joffe, H. The “hospital superbug”: social representations of MRSA. Soc Sci Med 2006;63(8):2141–2152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7.Beck, U. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications; 1992.Google Scholar
8.Childs, L. MRSA and the newspaper media. Biologist 2006;53(5):252–255.Google Scholar
9.Maycock, J. MRSA: breaking the silence on the superbug. Lampada 1989;(19):2.Google Scholar
10.Watson, T. Hospital superbugs: physician, wash thyself, and other medical safety tips. US News World Rep 1997;122(6):64–66.Google ScholarPubMed