BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Deaths from a
drug-resistant staph "superbug" among the 90,000 Americans infected each year
may exceed those caused by AIDs, according to a recently released government
report.
The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive
infections from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) per 100,000
people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal
of the American Medical Association, which published the study.
Most drug-resistant staph cases are mild skin
infections. But this study focused on invasive infections ¡ª those that enter the
bloodstream or destroy flesh and can turn deadly.
Researchers discovered only about one-quarter of the
cases involved hospitalized patients, although more than half were in the health
care system ¡ª people who had recently had surgery or were on kidney dialysis,
for example. Open wounds and exposure to medical equipment are major ways the
infection proliferates.
In recent years, the resistant germ has become more
common in hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker
rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods.
The new study offers the broadest look yet at the
pervasiveness of the most severe infections caused by MRSA. These bacteria can
be carried by healthy people, living on their skin or in their noses.
The researchers' estimates are extrapolated from 2005
surveillance data from nine mostly urban regions considered representative of
the country. There were 5,287 invasive infections reported that year in people
living in those regions, which would translate to an estimated 94,360 cases
nationally, the researchers said.
Most cases were life-threatening bloodstream
infections. However, about 10 percent involved so-called flesh-eating disease,
according to the study led by researchers at the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
(Agencies)
