Mrsa

Not only can bedbugs harbor MRSA, they could potentially, just maybe, spread the drug-resistant bacteria, researchers – and resulting headlines — are speculating. The thought is a scary one, but not much different than what we already knew about the threat from these generally nocturnal parasites . It’s certainly plausible that a blood-sucking bug can spread blood-transmitted diseases, but scientists haven’t found much evidence they do so. Here’s the low-down on what’s known on bedbugs and disease.

Staph infections remain a significant problem for hospital patients, and scientists are trying to develop vaccines to prevent Staphylococcus aureus bacteria from establishing itself in vital areas like the heart, lungs or blood. But it's turning out to be a difficult task: A promising vaccine intended to protect heart-surgery patients from staph infections worked no better than a placebo, a new study reported . Making matters worse, patients who developed staph infections despite getting the vaccine were more likely to die than infected patients who got the placebo, the study found.

A deadly bacteria that's practically impervious to antibiotics is on the rise and has appeared in medical facilities in 42 U.S. states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The rate of infection from carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, might seem low -- 4% -- but it has risen fourfold in just the last decade. CRE is resistant even to last-resort drugs such as carbapenem and can potentially be very deadly. Up to half of patients who develop a bloodstream infection from CRE die, according to the CDC report.

A deadly bacteria that's practically impervious to antibiotics is on the rise and has appeared in medical facilities in 42 U.S. states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The rate of infection from carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, might seem low -- 4% -- but it has risen fourfold in just the last decade. CRE is resistant even to last-resort drugs such as carbapenem and can potentially be very deadly. Up to half of patients who develop a bloodstream infection from CRE die, according to the CDC report.

Determining whether a staph infection can be effectively treated with common antibiotics such as methicillin, penicillin and amoxicillin may soon get a little quicker. The FDA has just cleared a new test that can rapidly assess whether the infection-causing bacteria are methicillin-resistant. Current lab methods take one to two days for a result, according to the new test's manufacturer . The FDA says the new test, which uses a sample of the patient's blood, can determine whether the infection is caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus  (commonly known as MRSA)

Hey, hand sanitizers. You can only do so much – and preventing MRSA infection isn’t one of those things -- so stop over-promising! That was the gist of warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration to four makers of the popular products. Apparently, the manufacturers of Staphaseptic, Safe4Hours, Dr. Tichenor’s and CleanWell products had suggested that various gels, protectants and what-not could protect against infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.

MRSA, the potentially deadly bacteria more formally known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has grabbed quite a few headlines this week.  Canadian researchers found MRSA (and VRE, other drug-resistant bacteria) in bedbugs in Vancouver; and American researchers found MRSA and other staph bacteria on a few samples of supermarket meat in Detroit.  The superbug news comes a month after researchers from a nonprofit biomedical research center found that about half of the grocery store meat they sampled was contaminated with staph bacteria , about half of which were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics.

Bedbugs leave their victims with itchy red welts, but they haven’t been considered much of a threat when it comes to the spread of disease. A new report calls that assumption into question. Researchers have now found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in bedbugs from three hospital patients in Vancouver, Canada. On one patient, researchers found three bedbugs carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , or MRSA, a bacterium resistant to many common antibiotics.  On two patients, they found a bedbug with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium , or VRE, another bacterium resistant to common antibiotics.  The report was published online before being printed in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases .  The researchers hasten to point out that there is no, repeat, no evidence linking bedbugs to disease transmission.

Last month, public health researchers reported that six Canadians -- one in Ontario, five in Saskatchewan -- were infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, drug-resistant staph. That may not sound unusual, but there was something odd about their illnesses: They were caused by a strain that during the last few years has spread through livestock and farm workers in Europe and North America. But the Canadians made sick by the bacterium had no contact with animals or farming; one of them, an elderly woman, had been housebound for several years.

When an HIV-infected patient walked into Dr. Daniel Berger's office with a nasty sore on his wrist, the physician suspected the culprit was a bacterium known as MRSA. The test results, however, were unexpected. Yes, this was methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but it was unresponsive to two medications that are recommended, mainstay treatments. Berger realized the already-formidable microbe had strengthened its defenses. "I was quite concerned, needless to say," said Berger, who since that incident two years ago has treated several other patients with similar infections.

A new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, has been discovered in cows and humans in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, researchers reported Thursday. The new strain disturbs researchers because it evades one of the most commonly used tests to detect MRSA, which could lead physicians to prescribe the wrong antibiotics to treat the infection. The new strain of the bacterium is still relatively rare and, so far, no deaths have been attributed to it, the team reported in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

MRSA, the potentially deadly bacteria more formally known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has grabbed quite a few headlines this week.  Canadian researchers found MRSA (and VRE, other drug-resistant bacteria) in bedbugs in Vancouver; and American researchers found MRSA and other staph bacteria on a few samples of supermarket meat in Detroit.  The superbug news comes a month after researchers from a nonprofit biomedical research center found that about half of the grocery store meat they sampled was contaminated with staph bacteria , about half of which were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics.

Not only can bedbugs harbor MRSA, they could potentially, just maybe, spread the drug-resistant bacteria, researchers – and resulting headlines — are speculating. The thought is a scary one, but not much different than what we already knew about the threat from these generally nocturnal parasites . It’s certainly plausible that a blood-sucking bug can spread blood-transmitted diseases, but scientists haven’t found much evidence they do so. Here’s the low-down on what’s known on bedbugs and disease.

Bedbugs leave their victims with itchy red welts, but they haven’t been considered much of a threat when it comes to the spread of disease. A new report calls that assumption into question. Researchers have now found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in bedbugs from three hospital patients in Vancouver, Canada. On one patient, researchers found three bedbugs carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , or MRSA, a bacterium resistant to many common antibiotics.  On two patients, they found a bedbug with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium , or VRE, another bacterium resistant to common antibiotics.  The report was published online before being printed in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases .  The researchers hasten to point out that there is no, repeat, no evidence linking bedbugs to disease transmission.

Determining whether a staph infection can be effectively treated with common antibiotics such as methicillin, penicillin and amoxicillin may soon get a little quicker. The FDA has just cleared a new test that can rapidly assess whether the infection-causing bacteria are methicillin-resistant. Current lab methods take one to two days for a result, according to the new test's manufacturer . The FDA says the new test, which uses a sample of the patient's blood, can determine whether the infection is caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus  (commonly known as MRSA)

Hey, hand sanitizers. You can only do so much – and preventing MRSA infection isn’t one of those things -- so stop over-promising! That was the gist of warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration to four makers of the popular products. Apparently, the manufacturers of Staphaseptic, Safe4Hours, Dr. Tichenor’s and CleanWell products had suggested that various gels, protectants and what-not could protect against infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.

Dangerous infections caused by the bacterium methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, appear to be declining in healthcare settings across the nation, the federal government reported Tuesday. An analysis conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 28% drop in cases of MRSA contracted in hospitals from 2005 to 2008 and a 17% decrease in cases contracted outside the hospital but among people who had had kidney dialysis or had been in a hospital or nursing home in the prior year.

More than half a century ago, when antibiotics were transforming modern medicine, a now almost forgotten drug was hailed as something close to the miracle of miracles. Doctors rushed to prescribe it for an array of medical problems — that is, until they discovered that the drug, chloramphenicol, sometimes had lethal side effects. Yet today, improbable as it may seem, an effort is underway to revive the use of chloramphenicol and other antibiotics that had largely been banished because of their potential danger.

Private rooms in hospital intensive care units are not just nicer for patients and their families – a new study shows they are safer, too. Roughly three out of every 10 ICU patients wind up with some kind of infection during their hospital stay. Those infections make sick people sicker, keeping them in the hospital for an additional eight to nine days and adding an estimated $3.5 billion to the nation’s healthcare tab each year. A $3.5-billion problem sure sounds daunting, but a new study suggests a straightforward solution: Make all ICU rooms private.

Taking good care of a patient also includes, quite literally, keeping in touch. But the growing fear in medicine of dangerous infectious germs and diseases is making physical contact less common in hospital rooms and doctors' offices, says an Oakland-based doctor. In an essay published Monday, Dr. Leif Hass recounts his 10-year-old daughter's hospitalization from MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) followed by his own infection and hospitalization. Although vowing to take more precautions against the spread of disease among his patients and his family, Hass describes his longtime reluctance to wear plastic gloves while interacting with patients because of the "barrier" gloves create.