Summary

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of both community-associated and hospital-associated bacteraemia in New Zealand and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aims of the ESR S. aureus bacteraemia (SAB) surveillance programme were to document rates of antimicrobial resistance, to better characterise the molecular epidemiology of isolates causing SAB, to examine variations in mortality rates and to examine variations in SAB rates according to place of onset, patient age, ethnicity, socioeconomic deprivation, risk factors and co-morbidities. Diagnostic laboratories were asked to refer all S. aureus from blood during the survey period, which ran between 2021 and 2023.