Starting immediately, hospitals will report these cases to the state including the drug-resistant staph infections called MRSA.

State epidemiologist Dr. Gil Chavez says doctors will report when people are admitted to the hospital for treatment of what’s called ‘community acquired’ staph infections.

Chavez: “These cases are the cases that really are going to be able to allow us to understand the pattern of MRSA, how MRSA is changing and the strains of MRSA that we are seeing in the state.” 

Chavez says until now the few hospital reports of staph infections needing critical care or causing death have been inconsistent. He says this lack of information has made it difficult to control the easily spread disease.