Study: Infections are killing more

The cases seem to be traced back to hospitals, nursing homes and medical clinics.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

CHICAGO — Nearly 19,000 Americans died in 2005 of invasive infections caused by drug-resistant staph bacteria — more than were killed by AIDS, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The report, authored by experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the latest research to note the alarming spread of MRSA in communities across the U.S. and to document the bacteria’s deadly impact.

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant staph aureus, a superbug that has developed immunity to treatment with common antibiotics such as penicillin. More than 94,000 Americans get life-threatening MRSA infections annually, and most appear to be traceable back to hospitals, nursing homes or medical clinics, the new CDC report found.

Examples include blood and bone infections, pneumonia, and inflammation of the heart’s lining.

“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.

Nancy Foster, vice president of patient safety at the American Hospital Association, called the study an “eye-opener” and said hospitals across the country will need to evaluate whether current strategies for combating MRSA are effective.

But a growing number of MRSA cases are also arising at community gyms and schools, and these too can be deadly. On Tuesday, a high school senior in Bedford, Va., died after being hospitalized for a week with an infection that spread to his kidney, liver, lungs and heart muscles.

“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 bacteria can live on common surfaces, such as a table, for days or weeks and be transmitted when someone touches it.

The CDC study found that 32 out of every 100,000 people in the communities studied contracted invasive MRSA infections. Rates were twice as high for blacks (66 per 100,000) and almost four times higher for the elderly (128 per 100,000). For infants younger than a year, the rate for blacks was four times that of whites.