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For Immediate Release: May 6, 2011Media Inquiries: Erica Jefferson, 301-796-4988, erica.jefferson@fda.hhs.govConsumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDAFDA clears first test to quickly diagnose and distinguish MRSA and MSSA The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared the first test for Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus)  infections that is able to quickly identify whether the bacteria are methicillin resistant (MRSA) or methicillin susceptible (MSSA).There are many different types of Staphylococci bacteria, which cause skin infections, pneumonia, food and blood infections (blood poisoning). While some S.aureus infections are treated easily with antibiotics, others are resistant (MRSA) to commonly prescribed antibiotics such as penicillin and amoxicillin. The KeyPath MRSA/MSSA...

YOUR PRAYERS ARE NEEDED!       Our old FRiend Prime Choice (Jay Dyson), who many of you will  remember as the talented creator of 'Sacred Cow Burgers' (ref:  here, and here), credits YOUR PRAYERS as critical in enabling him to successfully weather his serious past medical adversity, but is now reaching out out again for your help... In a recent email, Jay says in part...You will undoubtedly recall my prayer request from 7 years ago.  The grace of the Almighty was a salve upon my affliction then, and my family and I desperately need it now.I am presently under "no contact" isolation as...

Carrie Nee prefers to stand during her half-hour commute on BART from San Leandro to downtown San Francisco. Although the trains’ blue fabric seats are plush and comfortable, Ms. Nee refuses to sit on them. As Bob Franklin, the BART board president, acknowledged, “People don’t know what’s in there.” Now they do. Fecal and skin-borne bacteria resistant to antibiotics were found in a seat on a train headed from Daly City to Dublin/Pleasanton. Further testing on the skin-borne bacteria showed characteristics of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the drug-resistant bacterium that causes potentially lethal infections, although Ms. Franklin cautioned that...

Those latex gloves Transportation Security Administration agents wear while giving airline passengers those infamous full-body pat-downs apparently aren't there for the safety and security of passengers – only the TSA agents. That's the word being discussed on dozens of online forums and postings after it was noted that the agents wear the same gloves to pat down dozens, perhaps hundreds, of passengers, not changing them even though the Centers for Disease Control in its online writings has emphasized the important of clean hands to prevent the exchange of loathsome afflictions. "Herpes via latex glove ... ewwww," wrote one participant on...

A potentially lethal germ resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics is spreading fast in Chicago health-care facilities, new research suggests. This latest “superbug” is formed when common bacteria produce an enzyme called Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase, or KPC, that makes them resistant to a class of antibiotics used as a last resort when other treatments fail. The number of Chicago hospitals and long-term care facilities reporting infections with these KPC-producing bacteria has increased 42 percent, from 26 to 37, between this year and last. In addition, the average number of patients who tested positive for KPC infections at each of...

Building on an enzyme found in nature, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a nanoscale coating for surgical equipment, hospital walls, and other surfaces which safely eradicates methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the bacteria responsible for antibiotic resistant infections. “We’re building on nature,” said Jonathan S. Dordick, the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and director of Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies. “Here we have a system where the surface contains an enzyme that is safe to handle, doesn’t appear to lead to resistance, doesn’t leach into the environment, and doesn’t clog up with...

BALTIMORE — Waking from a fog of anesthesia, Sandy Wilson found she was a patient in one of the hospitals where she worked as a nurse. She remembered having a baby, and being told she had gotten an infection. But nothing could prepare her for what lurked beneath the sheets. Flesh-eating bacteria were eating her alive. "When I looked down at my belly, basically all the skin was gone and I could see my internal organs," she said. "I remember seeing my intestines. I thought, 'There's no way I can live like this ... This is a death sentence.'" ...

MRSA is mainly spread by patients moving between hospitals, Dutch researchers have said.The authors have called for more screening of people who are repeatedly admitted to different hospitals to try to break this transmission cycle. They said this would eventually help to eradicate MRSA. The conclusions were drawn from a large study of the geographical location of different strains of MRSA across 26 European countries. MRSA is a potentially lethal bug which is difficult to combat because it has developed resistance to some antibiotics. The study was published in the journal, PloS Medicine.

OSLO, Norway – Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner. Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked. The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cases of a drug-resistant bacterial infection known as MRSA have risen by 90 percent since 1999, and they are increasingly being acquired outside hospitals, researchers reported on Tuesday. They found two new strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- MRSA for short -- were circulating in patients and they are different from the strains normally seen in hospitals. Ramanan Laxminarayan of Princeton University in New Jersey and colleagues studied data on lab tests from a national network of 300 microbiology laboratories in the United States for their study. "We found during 1999-2006 that the percentage of S. aureus...

Nov. 2, 2009 (Philadelphia) -- A newly discovered strain of drug-resistant staph bacteria is five times more deadly than other strains, a new study suggests. Adding insult to injury, the new superbug appears to have some resistance to the antibiotic commonly used to treat it, researchers report. Half of patients infected with the new strain of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) died within 30 days, says Carol Moore, PharmD, a research investigator in infectious diseases at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. That compares to only about 10% of patients infected with other MRSA strains, she tells WebMD. Moore and colleagues studied...

The potential of the threat from the new strain of the antibiotic-resistant bacterium, which is becoming more widespread, is outlined in a study in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. Known as community acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA), it poses a significant risk outside hospitals.

Manuka honey may kill bacteria by destroying key bacterial proteins. Dr Rowena Jenkins and colleagues from the University of Wales Institute - Cardiff investigated the mechanisms of manuka honey action and found that its anti-bacterial properties were not due solely to the sugars present in the honey. The work was presented this week (7-10 September), at the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was grown in the laboratory and treated with and without manuka honey for four hours. The experiment was repeated with sugar syrup to determine if the effects seen were...

URGENT PRAYERS NEEDED - DAUGHTER ON RESPIRATOR, NOW HAS MRSA. My daughter, Stephanie, is on a respirator and nasal feeding tube in the ICU at our local hospital. She was admitted to the hospital on 06/07/2009, after having a seizure that lasted over an hour. She had several shorter ones back-to-back after admission. We were told today that she now has MRSA. I have written about her before. She is a severely mentally and physically disabled 24 year old, who does not walk, talk, or feed herself. She wears diapers and has a very rare type of dwarfism, so she...

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

A member of the House gym has been diagnosed with MRSA — a much-feared, antibiotic-resistant bacteria — and the facility has been scrubbed to eliminate the possibility that anyone will become infected. h/t John Bresnahan The (edited) memo from administrators at the House fitness center: On Monday, 4/13, the HSFC was informed by a HSFC patron that they had tested positive for MRSA. This patron was requested to refrain fromusing the facility until all drainage has stopped and only after then with the area completely bandaged and covered with clothing. The patron informed the HSFC staff that they would not...

"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."

Just over a year ago, the media provided just enough information (mostly incorrect) about a "deadly new bacteria" called MRSA to send our nation into a tizzy. But before you panic over the most recent report of a MRSA outbreak in a Tennessee school, let me remind the reader of this immutable truth: THE. MEDIA. ARE. IDIOTS. DO. NOT. TRUST. THEM.(I mean, if you don't trust the media to provide honest coverage about Obama, what on earth makes you think that they are going to give you the truth about MRSA? These dillweeds don't care about you; they care about...

An East Tennessee High School is dealing with two confirmed cases of the drug resistant Staph infection known as MRSA. The school is still open but some family members still have their concerns. The cases of MRSA are considered isolated and no students are considered at risk. Both confirmed cases are of teachers but school officials are still taking extra precaution to try and protect students from getting MRSA. Jessica Sharp is one of many concerned family members in Union County, after hearing word of MRSA cases at Union County High School. "It’s not just only the students that would...

MRSA, a drug-resistant germ, lurks in Washington hospitals, carried by patients and staff and fueled by inconsistent infection control. This stubborn germ is spreading here at an alarming rate, but no one has tracked these cases -- until now. Year after year, the number of victims climbed. But even as casualties mounted -- as the germ grew stronger and spread inside hospitals-- the toll remained hidden from the public, and hospitals ignored simple steps to control the threat. Over the past decade, the number of Washington hospital patients infected with a frightening, antibiotic-resistant germ called MRSA has skyrocketed from 141...