Daily HealthBeat Tip - June 06, 2007

Staph trouble

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A kind of bacteria has learned to beat an antibiotic doctors have used on it. The bacterium is Staphylococcus aureus. The drug is methicillin.

Methicillin-resistant Staph aureus, or MRSA, used to be primarily a problem in hospitals. But it’s spreading to people who are not hospitalized. Mostly, that’s skin infections. But researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report 10 cases in which people got pneumonia from MRSA in their communities. Six died.

MRSA can be treated with antibiotics other than methicillin. If it’s just a skin infection, doctors can sometimes treat it without antibiotics.

Even better, says CDC researcher Joan Brunkard, avoid getting a skin infection:

``Covering any open wounds or scrapes, keeping your hands clean, and not sharing personal items such as towels or razors.’’ (7 seconds)

Learn more at hhs.gov.

Last revised: June, 06 2007