MRSA Is a Dangerous Infection!

Dan Frith

Contributor

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Lauren wrote an article yesterday about a 16 year old boy who lived near our city and died from a MRSA
(methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infection. Today in our local newspaper (The Roanoke Times), another family came forward to tell the tragedy of another child (this time 15 years old!) who died of the same infection. These two reports days apart got me thinking...and worrying! Just how common is MRSA?

MRSA, a bacterial infection, is most dangerous when it gets into a patient's blood stream which is called invasive MRSA. It is estimated 94,000 American developed invasive MRSA infections in 2005, and 19,000 died from such infections, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers estimated that 66.5 per 100,000 black residents and 127.7 per 100,000 elderly residents nationwide developed invasive MRSA infections in 2005. It appears those populations experienced a higher rate of invasive MRSA infections because of their higher incidence of chronic diseases and subsequent stays in hospitals, where such infections most often occur. MRSA now kills more Americans every year than AIDS!

Read the JAMA study here.