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The word is out about the dangers of antibiotic-resistant staph infections, and there are reports of staph cases from at least half a dozen states today.
School officials in upstate New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire have sent letters home to parents informing them of recent cases. Meanwhile cases have prompted schools in Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia to sanitize facilities, particularly locker rooms and gyms where the germs are most easily spread.
The concern is about a strain of the bug known as MRSA, which doesn't respond to penicillin and other antibiotics. It can be spread by skin-to-skin contact or by sharing an item used by an infected person, particularly one with a cut or abrasion. A number of the cases have involved student athletes.
Earlier this week, a Virginia high school student died from a MRSA infection.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says MRSA infections are a major public health problem and more widespread than previously thought. A government study out this week says more than 90,000 Americans could get the "superbug" each year.
© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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{"commentId":1110891,"authorDomain":"webquack"}
Since this is happening in multiple states......how is it being spread so rapidly? And if it's a drug resistant strain, how does that happen? Is it man made? I'm uneducated on how a bacterial infection becomes what they a drug resistant strain.
Is homeland security going to look into this ?
Is this why we haven't been attacked since 9/11 because we have been being attacked this whole time right in front of our faces?
Just curious........
{"commentId":1110891,"threadId":"163886","contentId":"1033935","authorDomain":"webquack"}
- 1 vote
#1 - Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:01 PM EDT{"commentId":1112811,"authorDomain":"whyren"}
I'm curious as to how many of these are more common strains of Staph, and how many are the resistant variety. Normal Staph infections wouldn't be too surprising...Staphylococcus aureus, for example, is extremely common and under normal conditions isn't harmful. If most of these are MRSA cases, then that's a serious problem, and one that is rather curious as to how fast it has spread.
A drug-resistant strain could happen several ways. It would theoretically be possible to create a man-made strain. Drug resistance is a major selection factor in bacterial/genetic research...resistance to an antibiotic is connected to a desired gene and attempts are made to integrate the gene into bacteria. To check if colonies have received it, they are exposed to the antibiotic. The surviving colonies would have resistance and, since it is connected to the desired gene, most likely have integrated the target gene as well. It would be interesting to see if there has ever been any cases of the test colonies interacting with those outside the laboratory, allowing the resistance to "escape." I've not heard of this, but could see it as possible.
More commonly, it is a random mutation in a bacterium's genome that just so happens to create a resistance to particular drug. These propagate rapidly, however, because as the drug is used to kill off bacteria, only the resistant strains survive, giving them added space and resources to grow in number. I'm not aware of this in Staph in particular, but it is also possible for a bacterium to transfer genes to another, possibly allowing a previously non-resistant strain to gain resistance.
What I fear many may not want to admit is that the usefulness of many of our current antibiotics is reaching an end: the more they are used, the more likely resistant strains will develop (non-resistant ones would be killed off).
{"commentId":1112811,"threadId":"163886","contentId":"1033935","authorDomain":"whyren"}
- 1 vote
#2 - Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:36 AM EDT{"canLink":false,"threadId":"163886","isPrivate":false}
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