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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...

Filed at 3:01 p.m. ET LONDON (AP) -- It's immune to most antibiotics and has killed hundreds of patients in hospitals across Britain. Now, a superbug has found its way into the British election campaign, with Tony Blair's government promising to slash infection rates. For the leader of the opposition Conservatives, Michael Howard, the debate is particularly personal: His mother-in-law died of the infection. ''I mean, how hard is it to keep a hospital clean?'' reads a Conservative billboard. Britain has the second-worst record in Europe for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, a bacteria that can kill through blood...

KILLER RASH BREAKS OUTBy SAM SMITHMay 30, 2004 -- EXCLUSIVE A vicious skin infection resistant to all but the most powerful antibiotics has jumped out of New York City hospitals and onto the streets. The "superbug," as health officials refer to it, can cause anything from reddening of the skin, to abscesses, tissue loss, amputation or even death in severe cases, doctors said. For decades confined to hospitals, where it preyed on patients and built up immunity to antibiotics, the bug - known officially as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus or MRSA - has also grown in strength. "Usually with infections...

The number of deaths caused by hospital superbugs has tripled in the past decade with London worst hit, new figures show today. The first major study of its kind into the most common infection, MRSA, comes two months after the Evening Standard alerted Londoners to the growing danger of superbugs, which thrive on dirty wards and poor staff hygiene. A Standard investigation revealed that more than 100 patients a month in the capital are being struck down by the drug-resistant MRSA infection which, while not always fatal, can kill in hours. Now the situation is being officially recognised with a...

Medical experts say staphylococcus aureus, cause of some of the most troublesome infections to afflict man, has become resistant to the antibiotic of last resort, vancomycin. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced the first confirmed case of vancomycin-resistant staph aureus -- known in the medical world as VRSA -- found last month in a Michigan man. "The genie is out of the bottle," Dr. Donald Low, microbiologist-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital, says of the confirmation. "It's ominous." The experts know the Michigan case is solid proof they will soon have to deal with their nightmare scenario -- common staph...