Originally published May 11 2005
Alarming rates of flesh eating MRSA bug in the United States
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Doctors warn of a flesh eating MRSA bug that has appeared at many hospitals in the United States reports the New England Journal of Medicine. In California 14 patients were hospitalized as a result of these bugs. Although there were no deaths, patients experienced skin infections like pimples and boils over their bodies.
US doctors warn of small but alarming rates of a flesh-eating type of superbug.
Patients appear to have caught the MRSA infection that attacks the skin outside of hospital, reports the New England Journal of Medicine.
At a centre in California, 14 patients were identified between 2003 and 2004, and some needed to be hospitalised.
The infections in the US community have typically manifested as skin infections, such as pimples and boils, in otherwise healthy people.
The disease is different to MRSA infections seen in the UK, which occur most frequently among people in hospitals who have weakened immune systems.
The CDC has been investigating clusters of the community-acquired MRSA skin infections among athletes, military recruits and prisoners.
A common theme associated with the spread of these MRSA skin infections appears to be close skin-to-skin contact, openings in the skin such as cuts or abrasions, contaminated items and surfaces, crowded living conditions and poor hygiene.
The CDC is investigating why this strain is particularly good at spreading.
The study authors, from the University of California, Los Angeles, said: "We have recently noted an alarming number of these infections caused by community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)."
They recommended that in areas in which the infection is endemic, suspected cases should be promptly treated with antibiotics.
Angela Kearns, head of the Health Protection Agency's staphylococcus reference laboratory, said: "Over the past three years the Agency has seen only a small number of community-acquired MRSA cases, and the UK hasn't seen the levels of true community MRSA that have been seen in the States.
"Consequently, the risk of contracting this type of MRSA in the UK remains extremely small."
Dr Jodi Lindsay, lecturer in infectious diseases at St George's hospital, said although no cases had been reported in the UK yet, it was a concern.
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