RESEARCH 6. Herold BC, Immergluck LC, Maranan MC, Lauderdale DS, Gaskin RE, Boyle-Vavra S, et al. Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in children with no identified predisposing risk. JAMA. 1998;279:593–8. 7. Petti CA, Fowler VG Jr. Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia and endocarditis. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2002;16:413–35. 8. Dennison C, Pokras R. Design and operation of the National Hospital Discharge Survey: 1988 redesign. Vital Health Stat. 2000;1:1–42. 9. Jones ME, Mayfield DC, Thornsberry C, Karlowsky JA, Sahm DF, Peterson D. Prevalence of oxacillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus among inpatients and outpatients in the United States during 2000. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2002;46:3104–5. 10. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Census 2000 geographic terms and con- cepts. Washington; 2000. 11. Oehlert GW. A note on the delta method. Am Stat. 1992;46:27–9. 12. Simonsen L, Conn LA, Pinner RW, Teutsch S. Trends in infectious disease hospitalizations in the United States, 1980–1994. Arch Intern Med. 1998;158:1923–8. 13. Popovic JR, Hall MJ. 1999 National Hospital Discharge Survey. Advance data from vital and health statistics. No. 319. Hyattsville (MD): National Center for Health Statistics; 2001. 14. Hall MJ, Owings MF. 2000 National Hospital Discharge Survey. Advance data from vital and health statistics. No. 329. Hyattsville (MD): National Center for Health Statistics; 2002. 15. Bone RC. Gram-positive organisms and sepsis. Arch Intern Med. 1994;154:26–34. 16. Martin GS, Mannino DM, Eaton S, Moss M. The epidemiology of sepsis in the United States from 1979 through 2000. N Engl J Med. 2003;348:1546–54. 17. Laupland KB, Church DL, Mucenski M, Sutherland LR, Davies HD. Population-based study of the epidemiology of and the risk factors for invasive Staphylococcus aureus infections. J Infect Dis. 2003;187:1452–9. 18. Rubin RJ, Harrington CA, Poon A, Dietrich K, Greene JA, Moiduddin A. The economic impact of Staphylococcus aureus infec- tion in New York City hospitals. Emerg Infect Dis. 1999;5:9–17. 19. Ollendorf DA, Fendrick AM, Massey K, Williams GR, Oster G. Is sepsis accurately coded on hospital bills? Value Health. 2002;5:79–81. 20. Diekema DJ, Pfaller MA, Jones RN, and the SENTRY Participants Group. Age-related trends in pathogen frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility of bloodstream isolates in North America. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2002;20:412–8. 21. Wakefield DS, Pfaller M, Massanari RM, Hammons GT. Variation in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus occurrence by geograph- ic location and hospital characteristics. Infect Control. 1987;8:151–7. 22. 1997 ASCP Susceptibility Testing Group. United States geographic bacteria susceptibility patterns. Diag Microbiol Infect Dis. 1999;35:143–51. Address for correspondence: Daniel B. Jernigan, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Mailstop A35, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA; fax: 404-639-2647; email: djernigan@cdc.gov Search 872 Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 11, No. 6, June 2005