MRSA Superbug Infections Now Killing More Americans than AIDS

MRSA, the drug resistant staph infection that used to be confined to hospitals, is now in the wild and has overtaken AIDS as a killer of Americans.

I think that the number of people who have died from AIDS has been small compared to the other diseases, but given the fact that MRSA was not too long ago, a pretty rare infection, it is now something that should be of concern to all, as the threat is growing.

In the new study, Fridkin and his colleagues analyzed data collected in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Tennessee, identifying 5,287 cases of invasive MRSA infection and 988 deaths in 2005. The researchers calculated that MRSA was striking 31.8 out of every 100,000 Americans, which translates to 94,360 cases and 18,650 deaths nationwide. In comparison, complications from the AIDS virus killed about 12,500 Americans in 2005.

"This indicates these life-threatening MRSA infections are much more common than we had thought," Fridkin said.

In fact, the estimate makes MRSA much more common than flesh-eating strep infections, bacterial pneumonia and meningitis combined, Bancroft noted.

"These are some of the most dreaded invasive bacterial diseases out there," she said. "This is clearly a very big deal."

www.washingtonpost.com...

[edit on 2008/3/12 by GradyPhilpott]

I gotta agree with you Grady, allot of people don't realize how wide spread MRSA has become. Once it hits home they will educate themselves.

It happened to me in 2006. My son thought he had pulled a muscle at work but it kept getting worse. He went to the hospital and they gave him painkillers for it on a Friday. By the following Monday he had fluid around his heart and lungs and was in intensive care. The diagnosis was MRSA. By the following Thursday they had to remove part of his lung. He came very close to dying.

I wash my hands a heck of allot more now then I did then. I can't stand shaking someone else's hand.

This is not a bug to play around with, it's deadly serious.

Yeah this is an important topic.

Here is a page listing common symptoms, also includes many comments from people who have been around or have contracted MRSA Many of these people claim to have had MRSA for YEARS and not known it. Any one of us could have it and not really know. The symptoms are kind of vague.

I was getting random 'sores' (tiny red bumps) that eventually came to resemble a pimple (eww.) On a few occassions, these things arose around my inner thigh or right under the buttock and were pretty large. That kind of scared me. I immediately began to suspect Staph infection. A week later, my little brother got Staph in the same area, but had it treated and it went away.

It's a scary thing because you never know if you just have common sores or have contracted something.

But MRSA is like the bird flu or SARS... you can live in fear of it all you want but it's not going to help. Just be aware of it, keep clean, and know that even contracting a fatal illness is not the worst thing that can happen.

Thanks for posting OP

I have a young friend who has it and I'm pretty certain he got if from a dirty tattoo needle, as MRSA has in some cases been traced to tattoo parlors and he has full sleeves.

Somehow, he gave it to his grandmother and she had to be hospitalized and given intravenous antibiotics.

He had been to the hospital for treatment, but for some reason, no one seemed to be very concerned about it.

I insisted that he demand better treatment and an explanation of his prognosis and course of treatment.

I still have contact with him, but this matter has not come up in our brief interactions.

He's still alive, so I guess he's okay.

I know another young woman who was hospitalized for brain surgery to repair a shunt that drains fluid from her brain and while hospitalized she contracted both MRSA and spinal meningitis.

These were two people I used to work with. That's a pretty small population.

Fear won't really do much good, except to get one's attention and to motivate one to take proper precautions.

It would also seem to be a very good idea to stay out of hospitals at all costs.