Objective & Hypothesis: The objective of this prospective study is to determine the prevalence of MRSA and community acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) in adult patients (>17yrs old) presenting with skin or soft tissue infections to the emergency departments (EDs) of an academic health care setting in London, Ontario. Secondary objectives will include the identification of demographic and clinical variables associated with MRSA, characterization of MRSA antimicrobial susceptibilities and genotypes, and determining the effects of treatment on MRSA colonization. We believe that the prevalence of MRSA and CA-MRSA in London, Ontario will be lower than rates recently published by academic hospitals from the United States. The hypothesis of the study is that patients presenting to the Emergency Departments in London, Ontario with skin and soft tissue infections will have a 10% prevalence of CA-MRSA, but certainly the prevalence may be much higher.