Drug-Resistant Staph Bacteria Seem to Be Widespread in U.S.
By ROBERT TOMSHO
August 17, 2006; Page D4
Drug-resistant staph bacteria are present in 59% of skin and soft-tissue infections treated in emergency rooms, according to a new study that suggests physicians revamp treatment strategies.
The study, which looked at patients treated at emergency rooms in New York, Los Angeles and nine other cities, adds to a growing body of research pointing to the increased prevalence of the bacteria known as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. Methicillin is a penicillin-related drug once used to treat such staph infections.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also found many of the infected patients had USA300, a virulent new form of MRSA often transmitted from person to person in communities, outside hospitals.
In recent years, community-associated MRSA has broken out among prisoners, intravenous-drug users, military trainees and athletes. Untreated, it can lead to pneumonia and more serious infections of the blood and bones.
The study suggests physicians should presume MRSA is present when they treat such infections and prescribe drugs thought to be effective against it. "The take-home message for physicians would be to recognize just how common this is now," said Gregory Moran, the study's lead author and an emergency-room physician at the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, in Sylmar, Calif.
An editorial in the New England Journal said the study "defines the amazing extent to which community-associated MRSA, particularly the USA300 clone, has spread through the U.S. population."
C. Buddy Creech, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical School, said the study validates what many physicians have been seeing for several years. "Now we have good reproducible data that can drive our treatment options," said Dr. Creech, who didn't take part in the study.
The study looked at 422 emergency-room patients in August 2004. MRSA was found in 249 of those patients. The USA300 strain was detected in 212 of the 218 patient tissue samples that were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing.
The study suggests physicians take tissue samples from all patients for testing and treat them with an antibiotic such as trimethoprim-sulfa.
Courtesy of Wall St. Journal, August 17, 2006.
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