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A new strain of MRSA seems to be triggering a deadly form of pneumonia in people who catch flu, experts say.

"The strain of a once-innocuous staph infection that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics kills more people each year than the AIDS virus and in most cases is contracted in hospitals. ...SB 1058 will require hospitals to report infections such as MRSA to the Department of Health Services, effective Jan. 1."

Some of the most aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph infections gain their advantage with a molecule that punctures the immune cells trying to fight off the bacteria, scientists have discovered. Understanding the role of this molecule in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) could lead to new therapies for the notoriously hard-to-treat, and sometimes fatal, skin infection. Staph bacteria are ubiquitous but aren't dangerous unless they seep into an open wound. Even then, antibiotics will usually stop the infection. But some strains of staph that infect hospital patients with weakened immune systems have become resistant to all standard antibiotics, including methicillin. Now, a newer...

A superbug that first targeted vulnerable carriers such as prison inmates and intravenous drug users is now sweeping across Canada, sickening healthy adults and children in a number of Canadian provinces. Researchers at the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported the development Tuesday in a number of articles that were rushed to print in order to raise awareness. Forms of the drug-resistant bug known as community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- or CA-MRSA -- are causing skin and soft-tissue infections which are often difficult to treat, along with weeping wounds that don't heal. "People have flu-like symptoms, but often it won't present...

Reuters A drug-resistant "superbug" found in hospitals has a close cousin that is affecting athletes, prisoners and small children in growing numbers across the United States, disease experts said yesterday. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA can become fatal if not treated with the right antibiotics, said Daniel B. Jernigan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "MRSA is showing up in places it had never been seen before -- as a predominant cause of skin disease among children in some regions of the country, as clusters of abscesses among sports participants, as the most common cause of skin infections...