CDC Tells How to Avoid MRSA "Superbug" Infections

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have posted other information on MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the so-called "superbug" that's been spreading in schools across the country.

One area of their Web site supplies facts, answers, and solutions for schools, presenting questions and answers on what exactly MRSA is, where it is found, how it is transmitted, and how schools, parents, students, and teachers can help prevent it.

While much of the recent concern over the MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections has involved high school and college athletes, the vast majority of MRSA cases occur in hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities.

The CDC has also prepared a fact sheet for the public that gives questions and answers about MRSA. Even if a person does not have an athlete or hospital patient in his or her family, the contagious nature of the MRSA staph infection means that it's wise for the public to take simple precautions.

Ten at Iona College Contract MRSA Staph Infections

Stories of the spread of MRSA and other staph infections have been popping up a lot in the last couple of weeks, and yesterday brought more news.

Health officials said Friday that nine athletes and a coach in suburban Westchester County, just north of New York City, have contracted MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant staph infection that has been called a potential "superbug" infection.
MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a strain of staph infection that does not respond to most common antibiotics, but can be treated with other drugs.

The athletes and coach are at Iona College, located in New Rochelle, and the Westchester health commissioner has reported that the outbreak is under control and that the only student who was hospitalized has been released. The Iona cases were said to be "mild" and to have been caught early.

MRSA and Other "Superbug" Infections on the Rise

Over the last few years there have been more and more stories about emergence of infectious "superbugs" that resist treatment by most known antibiotics. The concern has grown in the last few days.

The bug is called MRSA, for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. Methicillin in a powerful antibiotic, and as the name of MSRA suggests, the drug cannot kill this staph infection.

Separate studies released Wednesday point out that MRSA has become so widespread that it may kill more people than HIV/AIDS. Close to 19,000 people in the United States died from MRSA in 2005. The bug has spread dramatically in places like hospitals and nursing homes, where it is easy for infections of all kinds to spread.

The Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that MRSA infections may be twice as common as is currently believed.

MRSA is not the only potential "superbug." Update New York has reported cases of another superbug, streptococcus pneunomiae, that has been found in a number of children with ear infections. This bug is resistant to all government-approved antibiotics, researchers reported.

The United States is not the only country affected by MRSA and related infections. In Britain, infection experts are fighting a outbreak of MRSA at a hospital neonatal unit after six babies tested positive for the bug.

The neo-natal unit of the Royal Blackburn Hospital in Lancashire closed to new admissions last month when the PVL strain of the MRSA outbreak was found.

, and upstate doctors have identified a "superbug" linked to pediatric ear infections that repels all 18 government-approved antibiotics, researchers report in separate analyses Wednesday.