MRSA Notes

Community-Acquired Staph Infections Pose Growing Threat – Forbes.com

While bird flu’s potential grabs the headlines, a health threat of another kind is already here in the form of staphylococcus aureus, bacteria once primarily limited to hospitals but now present in the community, new research shows.

One study focused on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacteria that lives uneventfully in the nose of many people but sometimes leads to serious infection. Symptoms can range from something as benign as an infected paper cut, to bloodstream infections, to infections of heart valves that can be fatal, said study author Dr. Philip L. Graham III, of Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Medical Center, in New York City.

Although the version of Staphylococcus aureus that causes pneumonia in hospitals is generally resistant to antibiotics, the version found in communities can be treated, he added.

The goal of the research, which appears in the March 7 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, is to alert doctors to treat infections with the proper medication immediately, Graham said.

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