Persistence of a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clone in a drug-use network.

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Abstract
Sir—The study by Quagliarello et al. [1] has shown links between geographic location, drug-sharing activities, and the transmission of staphylococci among users of injection drugs. Patterns of drug use, use of inhalation paraphernalia, and affiliation with 1 of 4 drug-use networks were identified as major contributors to the transfer of staphylococci in a nonoutbreak setting. The usefulness of a multifactorial approach in combining biological networks, social linkages, and molecular epidemiological techniques was thereby demonstrated.