Invasive Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infections in the United States
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Posted on 10/16/2007 4:26:32 PM PDT by neverdem
AP Medical Writer
More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ. Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.
The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study.
Most drug-resistant staph cases are mild skin infections. But this study focused on invasive infections - those that enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh and can turn deadly.
Researchers found that only about one-quarter involved hospitalized patients. However, more than half were in the health care system - people who had recently had surgery or were on kidney dialysis, for example. Open wounds and exposure to medical equipment are major ways the bug spreads.
In recent years, the resistant germ has become more common in hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods.
The new study offers the broadest look yet at the pervasiveness of the most severe infections caused by the bug, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. These bacteria can be carried by healthy people, living on their skin or in their noses.
An invasive form of the disease is being blamed for the death Monday of a 17-year-old Virginia high school senior. Doctors said the germ had spread to his kidneys, liver, lungs and muscles around his heart.
The researchers' estimates are extrapolated from 2005 surveillance data from nine mostly urban regions considered representative of the country. There were 5,287 invasive infections reported that year in people living in those regions, which would translate to an estimated 94,360 cases nationally, the researchers said.
Most cases were life-threatening bloodstream infections. However, about 10 percent involved so-called flesh-eating disease, according to the study led by researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There were 988 reported deaths among infected people in the study, for a rate of 6.3 per 100,000. That would translate to 18,650 deaths annually, although the researchers don't know if MRSA was the cause in all cases.
If these deaths all were related to staph infections, the total would exceed other better-known causes of death including AIDS - which killed an estimated 17,011 Americans in 2005 - said Dr. Elizabeth Bancroft of the Los Angeles County Health Department, the editorial author.
The results underscore the need for better prevention measures. That includes curbing the overuse of antibiotics and improving hand-washing and other hygiene procedures among hospital workers, said the CDC's Dr. Scott Fridkin, a study co-author.
Some hospitals have drastically cut infections by first isolating new patients until they are screened for MRSA.
The bacteria don't respond to penicillin-related antibiotics once commonly used to treat them, partly because of overuse. They can be treated with other drugs but health officials worry that their overuse could cause the germ to become resistant to those, too.
A survey earlier this year suggested that MRSA infections, including noninvasive mild forms, affect 46 out of every 1,000 U.S. hospital and nursing home patients - or as many as 5 percent. These patients are vulnerable because of open wounds and invasive medical equipment that can help the germ spread.
Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, said the JAMA study emphasizes the broad scope of the drug-resistant staph "epidemic," and highlights the need for a vaccine, which he called "the holy grail of staphylococcal research."
The regions studied were: the Atlanta metropolitan area; Baltimore, Connecticut; Davidson County, Tenn.; the Denver metropolitan area; Monroe County, NY; the Portland, Ore. metropolitan area; Ramsey County, Minn.; and the San Francisco metropolitan area.
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My Step-mother got this “MRSA” after having hip surgery then put in a nursing home. She never got rid of it and died after 4 months in the nursing home.
Drug resistant Staph in the USA; Clostridium Difficile in the UK. Please point out to those who complain about the cost of prescription drugs here that we are funding the research that will find newer drugs to combat these terrible bugs. And one more thing for the complainers.......get the lawsuits out of medicine and doctors won’t have to charge so much because their malpractice insurance won’t cost them so much.
Stories like this motivate me to get in the lab and work longer and harder. I’m working on MRSA for my Master’s thesis, and I really hope that something good will come of it.
Not to mention the fact that if Hillary Care takes hold, development of new drugs will be highly curtailed,and there will be even MORE problems with these "super bugs".
Good luck! Get cracking.
And the rest of the world benefits from our drug research, especially those who have socialized medicine. More’s the pity if we end up with Hillarycare.
Oh the beautiful ambiguity of the English language! Are you hoping that something good will come of your Master’s thesis, MRSA, or your research?! :)
A freeper was diagnosed with MRSA a few days ago and asked us for prayers...said antibiotics not working:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1911763/posts
Have you thought about working to stem the biggest cause of it's spread - the hospitals?
Wouldn't it it be advantageous to STOP 100's of thousands of cases from happening in the first place.
Include a Public Awareness book to educate the general public on preventive measures, particularly if they have to go to the hospital.
PREVENTION
The hospital rooms should have a bottle or some means for disinfection of hands, mounted immediately inside the door of the room and the patient should make sure that any doctor, nurse, etc, coming in - USE IT.
Even when they go to the bath room and wash their hands - they are leaving whatever germs they came in with ON THE FAUCET!
Patients, or family, should have a can of Lysol to spray on everything when they go in - and a bottle of hand sanitizer at the bedside - use it themselves and do not be shy in demanding any medical critters either disinfect when they come in the door - if it's not available - squirt some sanitizer from your bottle - don't let them handle the bottle and leave germs on it....
It's still true that "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Thanks for the link.
IIRC this infection only occurs in socialist hospitals.
"Poor urban neighborhoods?? Why would that be?
This works but is highly impractical. If you think the cost of health care is high now wait until you have to sit in isolation for a day waiting for lab results before you have access to treatment. And it totally won't work for emergency acute care situations requiring immediate admission and treatment unless we redesign all our hospitals and make each bed its own individual little isolation unit with its own private caregivers.
MRSA is out of the hospitals and in schools and daycare centers.
One Nashua, New Hampshire high school had several cases recently.
A young child died from it in NH in the past few days:
The results underscore the need for better prevention measures."
Hmmmmmm...this would seem to ge double for AIDS, which is usually transmitted through purely voluntary behavior. Is there any public health official who will tell gays and druggies to simply stop their nasty and destructive behaviors?
Did I just hear crickets chirping?
I was listening to a microbiologist being interviewed about this. He said medical staff including physicians are primarily to blame because they rely on inferior alcohol gels instead of hand washing. I believe it.
I was listening to a microbiologist being interviewed about this. He said medical staff including physicians are primarily to blame because they rely on inferior alcohol gels instead of hand washing. I believe it.
micro ping
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