III 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 301 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES October 5, 2009 Mr. Burris (for himself and Mr. Durbin) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to RESOLUTION Designating October 2, 2009, as World MRSA Day.

Whereas methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causes deadly infections in patients that are receiving treatment in health care facilities and affects numerous individuals within our Nation's communities; Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that hospital-acquired MRSA infections killed more than 19,000 individuals in the United States in 2006; Whereas patient and consumer advocacy organizations around the world are lending their voices to a call for leadership and an international commitment to preventing and eradicating MRSA, a disease that has reached pandemic levels and is spreading at an alarming rate; Whereas patient and consumer advocacy organizations are calling upon health care officials and government leaders to step up and take a more comprehensive approach to stopping MRSA through implementation of a broad and proactive prevention program; Whereas the MRSA Survivors Network, the first consumer organization in the United States to raise awareness concerning the MRSA epidemic and other such multi-drug resistant health care-acquired infections, has announced that October 2, 2009, has been designated as “World MRSA Day”, which shall be commemorated annually on such date; and Whereas the MRSA Survivors Network has also designated the month of October as “World MRSA Awareness Month” in order to call attention to this worldwide epidemic: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate designates October 2, 2009, as World MRSA Day.