Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection

To the Editor: We report a community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection in a 65-year-old woman who did not use intravenous drugs and was not a nursing home resident. The patient was hospitalized with endocarditis due to methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Neither she nor her husband had been hospitalized for the past 15 years. They had not visited a nursing home. No family members worked in a health care facility, and none used intravenous drugs. She became deaf, quadriplegic, and aphasic as a result of the infection and its treatment. Cells for culture were obtained from the hands, nose, and throats of . . .