Title: Can MRSA in the environment cause disease?
Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium that can cause skin infections among other ailments. MRSA, which is resistant to multiple antibiotics, is estimated to cause ~80,000 infections and ~11,000 deaths per year in the US. Existing mathematical models have analyzed human-human interaction in disease spread. However, MRSA has been found in environmental surfaces such as beds and doorknobs in hospitals. I propose a model of MRSA disease development accounting for environment-human interactions. A key assumption of this model is the existence of two bacterial states – one that has not adapted to the skin environment, and one that has. Tools used include differential equations, stochastic processes and parameter inference.