Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) is a biological agent responsible for difficult-to-treat
infections in humans. (MSSA is Methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus
aureus.) MRSA is a variation of Staphylococcus aureus,
a common bacterium, which has evolved the ability to survive treatment with beta-lactam antibiotics, including penicillin
and methicillin.
This drug resistant bacterium killed nearly
19,000 Americans in 2005 alone, according to a new study in the Journal
of the American Medical Association. That is more people than were killed by AIDS in the United States. More than
94,000 Americans were afflicted with MRSA infections in 2005.
Although
the super germ, or superbug, is primarily found in hospitals,
a growing number of cases have been contracted at public gyms
and schools.
"Certainly, MRSA now has to be viewed as a very important target for prevention
and control," said Dr. David A. Talan, an infectious diseases specialist at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center.
