Snip: As if threats of pandemic superflu weren't enough, yet another new and potentially fatal "superbug" is spreading worldwide — including in Tucson. No mere threat, this bug has infected hundreds of Tucsonans already and hospitalized dozens, some with life-threatening illness. Appearing at first as just a pimple, maybe a small cut, the infection often is mistaken by many victims — and their doctors — for a spider bite, delaying vital treatment. Known as MRSA — methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or "mersa" — it is in fact a highly contagious bacteria that has developed strong resistance to most antibiotics, making it hard to treat and setting the stage for dangerous invasive disease.
Mersa itself is actually nothing new. This resistant form of staph bacteria has been around for decades, but was limited mostly to outbreaks in hospital and nursing-home patients. What's alarming doctors and public-health officials now is that mersa has moved into the general public — often infecting young people who have been nowhere near a hospital.
Infection begins on the skin, triggering inflammation, boils or nasty abscesses that can take weeks of treatment to stop — including surgery and hospitalization. But if it moves to the bloodstream, mersa can cause bone infection, lung-damaging pneumonia, organ damage, even fatal toxic shock syndrome. Several Tucson emergency rooms report treating some 500 cases of mersa this year — triple the number seen just two years ago.
ON THE NET...
CDC.gov: "MRSA"
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/submenus/sub_mrsa.htm
Ugh that sounds ugly. Where is this stuff coming from??
PING RR
Also, questioning Tucson?? Border area, illegals? 500 seems like a lot for one year. .
I wonder if my Purell will work? Considering how cold it has been here I can wear my mittens when I go to the store. I don't know, it's all kind of depressing, I'm going to take my Amazing Grace bubble bath and snuggle in bed and not worry.
Thanks for the report on the MRSA, it sounds like what my daughter has.
She has been under treatment, surgery, months in the hospital and it has been over a year.
The doctors said she could have gotten if from the soil, but it went wild.