Good find. Beat me to it.

...There is more to this story.

New diseases are appearing with regularity - and many once benign diseases are becoming virulent and deadly. The "flesh-eating disease" called methicillin resistant staph (MRSA) is one of these.

Once restricted to hospitals, MRSA now is loose in the world and can be "community-acquired." 60% to 75% of all community-acquired staph infections are now methicillin-resistant MRSA.

Of nearly 400 cases of community-acquired staph infections of skin and soft-tissue documented during a three-month period at a local inner-city hospital, 72% were methicillin-resistant, reported Henry M. Blumberg, M.D., of Emory here.

But in 65% of those cases, patients were treated with antibiotics that lacked effectiveness against MRSA, indicating that physicians didn't suspect MRSA and failed to appreciate how widespread it had become in community-acquired settings, Dr. Blumberg and colleagues said in the March 7 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

...our data indicate that community-acquired MRSA has now become a widespread and endemic cause of S. aureus skin and soft tissue infection in our community," the authors said. ..."The proliferation of community-acquired MRSA and especially the USA 300 clone, in the United States has been truly remarkable," Dr. Moellering wrote. "In other parts of the United States, 60% to 75% of all community-acquired isolates of S. aureus are now methicillin-resistant."

Vigilance Urged for Community-Acquired MRSA

North Carolina nursing assistant cut her finger on a wheelchair

North Carolina health officials are investigating the death of a woman who died last week of a flesh-eating bacteria three days after accidentally jamming her hand in a wheelchair while working at a nursing home.

Nursing assistant Sharron Bishop, 44, died Feb. 27. A doctor said a rare flesh-eating bacteria may have entered her body through a thumb injury and she turned from healthy to fatally ill.

David Bishop said doctors at UNC Hospitals, where Sharron Bishop died, have told him it's impossible to know how his wife contracted the rare infection.

"The UNC doctors said she could have picked it up at the gas station, at the grocery store, anywhere," he said. "We will never know."

More from your lead story:

Flesh-eating germ kills woman in three days

North Carolina nursing assistant cut her finger on a wheelchair

North Carolina health officials are investigating the death of a woman who died last week of a flesh-eating bacteria three days after accidentally jamming her hand in a wheelchair while working at a nursing home.

Nursing assistant Sharron Bishop, 44, died Feb. 27. A doctor said a rare flesh-eating bacteria may have entered her body through a thumb injury and she turned from healthy to fatally ill.

David Bishop said doctors at UNC Hospitals, where Sharron Bishop died, have told him it's impossible to know how his wife contracted the rare infection.

"The UNC doctors said she could have picked it up at the gas station, at the grocery store, anywhere," he said. "We will never know."