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Health

Study: Drug-resistant staph may infect 30,000

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 25, 2007

ATLANTA - A dangerous, drug-resistant staph germ may be infecting as many as 5 percent of hospital and nursing home patients, according to a study.

At least 30, 000 U.S. hospital patients may have the superbug at any given time, says a survey released by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

The estimate is about 10 times the rate that some health officials had previously estimated.

At issue is a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which cannot be tamed by certain common antibiotics. The potentially fatal germ typically thrives in health care settings where people have open wounds. But in recent years, "community-associated" outbreaks have occurred among prisoners, children and athletes.

The study was different from previous ones in that it sampled a larger and more diverse set of health care facilities. It also counted cases in which the bacterium was merely present in a patient and not necessarily causing disease. The researchers concluded that at least 46 out of every 1, 000 patients had the bug.

Fast Facts:

Staphylococcus aureus

- Spread by touch

- Causes sometimes-horrific skin infections, blood infections, pneumonia and other illnesses

- Can be treated with strong antibiotics

- Spread in medical facilities can be prevented through hand-washing and equipment decontamination, and by wearing gloves and gowns and by separating infected people from other patients

[Last modified June 25, 2007, 01:10:36]