When was MRSA first discovered ?

MRSA was first discovered in 1961 in the United Kingdom.  Its first significant appearance in the USA was in 1981 among IV drug users.

The first reported cases of CaMRSA (Community acquired MRSA) began to appear in the mid 1990s in Australia, New Zealand, USA, the UK, France, Finland, Canada and Samoa.  These cases were noteworthy as they involved people who had not been exposed to a healthcare environment.

The number of reported MRSA infections in the USA has been growing significantly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) having estimated that the volume of MRSA infections in hospitals doubled nationwide from around 127,000 in 1999 to 278,000 in 2005.  At the same time, yearly deaths attributed to MRSA grew from 11,000 to more than 17,000.