Niko
Editor, Senior Moderator
'Superbug' bacteria deaths exceed those from AIDS
By Judith Graham
Tribune staff reporter
<script language="javascript" src="http://core.insightexpressai.com/adServer/GetInvite.aspx?bannerID=24247"></script><!-- Template Id = 990 Template Name = Interstitial Pop-Up/Pop-Under Redirect - Window Settings --> 4:33 PM CDT, October 16, 2007
<noscript>
</noscript>
Nearly 19,000 Americans die each year of invasive infections caused by drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria?a larger number than deaths caused by AIDS, according to a major new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The report, written by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the latest piece of research to note the alarming spread of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus in communities across the U.S. and to document the bacteria's deadly impact.
MRSA is a superbug that does not respond to treatment by common antibiotics such as penicillin. The bacteria can live on common surfaces such as tables or doorknobs for days or weeks and can be transmitted when someone touches an infected surface.
More than 94,000 Americans get life-threatening MRSA infections annually, most of which appear to be traceable back to hospitals, nursing homes or medical clinics, the new CDC report found.
"This is really a call to action for health-care facilities to make sure they're doing everything they can to prevent MRSA," said R. Monina Klevens, the lead author of the report and a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.
"I've never heard of a bacterial invasive disease with an attack rate anywhere near this high in children and the elderly," said Dr. Robert Daum, a specialist in MRSA and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago.
The report found 32 of every 100,000 people in the communities studied contracted invasive MRSA infections. Rates were double that for African-Americans (66 per 100,000) and four times as high for the elderly (128 per 100,000). For infants younger than 1, the rate for blacks (66 per 100,000) was more than four times that of whites (15 per 100,000).
"That's just shocking," Daum said, adding he's seen five children with invasive MRSA infections at the U. of C. in the last month alone.
African-Americans may be more vulnerable because they have higher rates of chronic illness, which require more visits to health-care providers, Klevens said. Also, the prevalence of poverty may play a role.
Earlier this year, a separate study in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggested MRSA was spreading rapidly in Chicago's poor, urban neighborhoods, fueled in part by crowded public housing and an influx of thousands of young men to and from the Cook County Jail. It's likely these men are contracting infections at the jail and bringing them back to households where young children live, Daum said.
The new CDC report is the most reliable overview of MRSA prepared by a government agency to date. The data came from nine sites, including Connecticut, Baltimore, the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta and Portland, Ore., and three counties in Minnesota, Tennessee and New York.
Instead of using administrative data, researchers checked medical records to confirm cases of invasive MRSA infections and double-checked laboratory results. An earlier CDC study, which relied on administrative data, had estimated 5,000 people die each year of serious MRSA infections.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-web_mrsaoct17,1,4016444.story
By Judith Graham
Tribune staff reporter
<script language="javascript" src="http://core.insightexpressai.com/adServer/GetInvite.aspx?bannerID=24247"></script><!-- Template Id = 990 Template Name = Interstitial Pop-Up/Pop-Under Redirect - Window Settings --> 4:33 PM CDT, October 16, 2007
<noscript>
Nearly 19,000 Americans die each year of invasive infections caused by drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria?a larger number than deaths caused by AIDS, according to a major new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The report, written by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the latest piece of research to note the alarming spread of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus in communities across the U.S. and to document the bacteria's deadly impact.
MRSA is a superbug that does not respond to treatment by common antibiotics such as penicillin. The bacteria can live on common surfaces such as tables or doorknobs for days or weeks and can be transmitted when someone touches an infected surface.
More than 94,000 Americans get life-threatening MRSA infections annually, most of which appear to be traceable back to hospitals, nursing homes or medical clinics, the new CDC report found.
"This is really a call to action for health-care facilities to make sure they're doing everything they can to prevent MRSA," said R. Monina Klevens, the lead author of the report and a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.
"I've never heard of a bacterial invasive disease with an attack rate anywhere near this high in children and the elderly," said Dr. Robert Daum, a specialist in MRSA and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago.
The report found 32 of every 100,000 people in the communities studied contracted invasive MRSA infections. Rates were double that for African-Americans (66 per 100,000) and four times as high for the elderly (128 per 100,000). For infants younger than 1, the rate for blacks (66 per 100,000) was more than four times that of whites (15 per 100,000).
"That's just shocking," Daum said, adding he's seen five children with invasive MRSA infections at the U. of C. in the last month alone.
African-Americans may be more vulnerable because they have higher rates of chronic illness, which require more visits to health-care providers, Klevens said. Also, the prevalence of poverty may play a role.
Earlier this year, a separate study in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggested MRSA was spreading rapidly in Chicago's poor, urban neighborhoods, fueled in part by crowded public housing and an influx of thousands of young men to and from the Cook County Jail. It's likely these men are contracting infections at the jail and bringing them back to households where young children live, Daum said.
The new CDC report is the most reliable overview of MRSA prepared by a government agency to date. The data came from nine sites, including Connecticut, Baltimore, the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta and Portland, Ore., and three counties in Minnesota, Tennessee and New York.
Instead of using administrative data, researchers checked medical records to confirm cases of invasive MRSA infections and double-checked laboratory results. An earlier CDC study, which relied on administrative data, had estimated 5,000 people die each year of serious MRSA infections.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-web_mrsaoct17,1,4016444.story
