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rp rise in suberbug death toll By Matthew Moore and PA Last Updated: 3:04pm GMT 22/02/2007 More patients are dying of conditions linked to the hospital superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C-diff), it was revealed today. Between 2004 and 2005, mention of MRSA on death certificates rose by 39 per cent while mention of C-diff rose 69 per cent, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Conservatives today described the rise as "staggering", and said the Government had failed to put in place an effective strategy for combatting the bugs. "Labour's savage bed cuts over the...

Using tea tree oil can increase MRSA risk Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 16/02/2007 A common ingredient in many beauty products can increase the user's chances of suffering from "superbug" infections including MRSA, it was warned today. Scientists have discovered that repeated exposure to low doses of tea tree oil could endanger people. The experts from the University of Ulster revealed exposure to low doses of the oil made pathogens such as MRSA, E.coli and salmonella more resistant to antibiotics, and capable of causing more serious infections. Tea tree oil is commonly used in beauty products, but there is no legislation...

Source: Texas A&M Health Science Center Date: January 28, 2007 Bacteria In Staph Infections Can Cause Necrotizing Pneumonia Science Daily — Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology at Houston have discovered a toxin present in the bacteria responsible for the current nationwide outbreak of staph infections also has a role in an aggressive pneumonia that is often fatal within 72 hours. "The virulence of CA-MRSA (community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) strains that produce the PVL (Panton Valentine leukocidin) toxin presents a nightmare scenario," said M. Gabriela Bowden, Ph.D., research assistant professor at HSC-IBT and...

Scientists have unravelled the workings of a deadly superbug that attacks healthy young people and can kill within 24 hours. PVL-producing MRSA, a highly-virulent strain of the drug-resistant superbug, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, has spread around the world and caused deaths in the UK, Europe, the US and Australia. PVL or panton-valentine leukocidin toxin destroys white blood cells and usually causes boils and other skin complaints. But if it infects open wounds it can cause necrotising pneumonia, a disease that rapidly destroys lung tissue and is lethal in 75% of cases. Thousands of infections have been recorded across the US, but...

Close window Published online: 18 January 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070115-10 Research highlights nastier form of MRSAToxin-laden bacterium makes for a killer in the community.Heidi LedfordResearchers have unpicked why a particularly nasty form of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which can strike down otherwise healthy victims outside of the hospital, is quite so vicious. The results, says Gabriela Bowden, an immunologist at Texas A&M University in Houston and an author on the study, could be used to derive new therapies to combat the troublesome bug. The study, published in this week's Science, shows that a toxin produced by the bacterium, called Panton Valentine...

Superbug emerging across Canada Sharon Kirkey, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 A superbug that causes infections from large, boil-like lesions to hemorrhagic pneumonia and, in rare cases, ''flesh-eating'' disease is poised to ''emerge in force'' across Canada, a new report warns. While the prospect of a flu pandemic has governments scrambling to develop emergency plans, an epidemic of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA, is already raging in the U.S. and beginning to entrench itself here, infectious disease experts report today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In the U.S., clusters have been reported in groups from...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Treatment errors and other breakdowns in medical care have contributed to the deaths of at least 14 inmates in the nation's largest county jail system since 1999, a newspaper reported Sunday. The jail system lacks enough doctors, nurses and other medical workers, resulting in long delays in treatment for conditions ranging from hernias to heart disease, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times found. Inmates have waited weeks for exams they were supposed to receive within 24 hours of making a request, the newspaper said. Officials acknowledge that 20 percent of inmates who ask to see...

Tie ban for doctors to stop spread of MRSA By Alex Berry Last Updated: 2:35am GMT 18/12/2006 Doctors have been ordered to ditch their ties over fears they are spreading the deadly hospital superbug MRSA. An NHS trust has also told all its staff involved in direct patient care not to wear jewellery, wrist watches, scarves or any "superfluous clothing". Even consultants have been warned that being smartly-dressed when giving patients bad news could present an infection risk. The move, by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, follows a report by the British Medical Association calling for doctors to...

Hospitals told to isolate patients with superbug By Beezy Marsh, Health Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:27am GMT 19/11/2006 Hospitals have been ordered to create MRSA isolation wards where necessary to treat patients infected with the superbug. Under controversial Government plans, all elderly people admitted from nursing homes will be screened for MRSA and forced to use antibacterial shampoo, shower gels and creams as a precaution. Millions more patients scheduled for operations such as hip replacements and heart and brain surgery will also be checked for infection. According to the Department of Health guidance, those found to be infected should...

Hospitals fail to report spread of new superbug 'more dangerous than MRSA' Beezy Marsh, Health Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:13am GMT 05/11/2006 The spread of a dangerous new superbug through hospitals is being hugely underestimated by the Government's reporting scheme, NHS staff have admitted. The shambolic state of infection control on wards is exposed in a survey by the Patients' Association. It found only about a quarter of trusts are gathering data on Clostridium difficile (C. diff), the bacterium that experts say poses more of a risk to public health than MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). Clostridium difficile: More of...

Vaccine protects mice against MRSA superbug 22:36 30 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi A newly developed vaccine might serve as a useful weapon against the drug-resistant superbug MRSA, researchers say. Tests in mice have shown that the vaccine can protect against multiple types of MRSA, which can cause fatal infections in humans. Experts say the discovery of a broadly effective vaccine is especially important as more infectious MRSA strains have recently emerged. They also stress that patients with compromised immune systems face an ever-increasing risk of acquiring MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, while in hospital. Olaf Schneewind at...

· Technique renders pathogens benign· Crop and animal diseases could also be targeted Scientists have taken a big step towards a new generation of antibiotics by designing compounds that stop bacteria "talking to each other", thwarting their ability to spread infection. The revolutionary approach renders bacteria benign rather than killing them off, and comes as many antibiotics are losing their potency against pathogens which have developed drug resistance.Tests showed the compounds actively blocked the spread of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common bacterium which causes fatal lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis and leads to life-threatening blood infections in patients with...

Hospital superbug 'out of control' as child MRSA cases rise to 150 By Beezy Marsh, Health Correspondent (Filed: 10/09/2006) Nearly 150 babies and children last year suffered potentially fatal blood infections after contracting the MRSA superbug in NHS hospitals, Government research reveals. The figure is double that of previous estimates, raising concerns that MRSA is tightening its grip on the very young and that poor hospital hygiene is allowing the superbug to spread. Children with MRSA in their blood require emergency hospital treatment to prevent blood poisoning and toxic shock, which can quickly lead to organ failure and death. Premature...

In April 2005, Sara Stephan, a 13-year old in Charleroi, Pa., developed what looked like a pimple on her cheek. A blemish on a teenager is not exactly cause for alarm, but her mother, Carla Stephan, became concerned when it started to spread and swell. “Her whole cheek got big and red,” she said. Next, a similar lesion above Sara’s eye. Then, she got one the size of a softball on her buttock, and several more on her thighs. Tests showed that Sara had a particularly persistent and sometimes deadly bacterial infection known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, often abbreviated as...

Bug bites are common in summer but a new super bug sweeping San Diego could have potentially fatal effects. Local hospital emergency rooms are being jammed by patients who've been bitten by a strain of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Although the bites look they come from spiders, officials say they're much more harmful. Even worse: They're spreading so fast that the local emergency rooms are reporting at least one new infection per day. The bacteria is called "metha-cillin resistant staph aureus'' -- or "MRSA" for short and while it looks harmless under a microscope, Scripps Mercy hospital epidemiologist Frank Myers...

House Speaker Dennis Hastert was hospitalized Thursday for treatment of a bacterial skin infection. Hastert was expected to be treated with intravenous antibiotics at Bethesda Naval Hospital in suburban Maryland through the weekend, according to his spokesman Ron Bonjean. Hastert, 64, discovered the infection on his lower left leg and applied a topical ointment. After a few days, Hastert's doctor examined the infection at Bethesda and diagnosed it as cellulitis, a skin infection that appears as a swollen, red area that feels hot and tender, and that can spread rapidly without treatment, the spokesman said. Hastert is a 10-term congressman...

ATLANTA, March 21 — Antibiotic resistance has long been an important human health problem. But now it is also showing up in a small but growing number of pets in this country, Canada and Europe, scientists and federal health officials said on Tuesday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases here. The health officials said they did not want to sound too loud an alarm. But they said they wanted to learn more about the problem that has developed involving the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, the most common cause of staphylococcal infections among people. The same genetic strains of S....

A virulent staph germ once largely confined to hospitals is emerging in jails, gyms and schools. It all began with what looked like a spider bite on Eileen Moore's left thigh. Nothing to worry about, she figured. Within 24 hours, the "bite" became a 6-inch welt with a bubble of pus that eventually ripened into a black wound. Over the next few months, scabs dotted her face. A hangnail caused her middle finger to bloat like a sausage. Her pierced ears oozed pus. The cause of Moore's ordeal was a bacterium known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which in its most...

It all began with what looked like a spider bite on Eileen Moore's left thigh. ...Within 24 hours, the "bite" became a 6-inch welt with a bubble of pus that eventually ripened into a black wound. Over the next few months, scabs dotted her face. A hangnail caused her middle finger to bloat like a sausage. Her pierced ears oozed pus. The cause of Moore's ordeal was a bacterium known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which in its most severe form can turn into a fatal flesh-destroying scourge. For decades, the infections were found only in hospitals, where the constant use...

POSTED: 12:01 am PST February 21, 2006 UPDATED: 9:25 am PST February 21, 2006 SEATTLE -- A 6-year-old Bellingham boy is fighting to survive a deadly infection that's killing the tissue in his face. Jake Finkbonner has necrotizing faciitis, a ravaging bacteria. Finkbonner was airlifted from Bellingham to Children's Hospital a week ago. He's had three surgeries so far to try to save his life. The problem started when the boy received a fat lip from a fall at a basketball game. Jake's father, Donny Finkbonner, said surgeons worked on his son the night he was brought to Children's Hospital...