Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy

Figure 1.4 shows MRSA rates for the United States and other high- and middle-income countries for 2004. In Europe, only Romania and Malta had higher rates of MRSA than the United States in that year. MRSA levels were high in East Asia, specifically South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, probably because of high levels of antibiotic use, but not much higher than for the United States. In the Americas, only Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia had a higher MRSA prevalence than the United States.