Fri 18 Aug 2006
Deadly drug-resistant staph infections — rarely seen in patients a decade ago — have now become the leading type of skin infections treated in emergency rooms, scientists reported Wednesday.
The study in the New England Journal of Medicine was the first to demonstrate the extent to which drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has spread throughout the U.S.
The bacterium accounted for 59 percent of skin infections in the study, researchers said. Local prevalence ranged from 15 percent in New York to 74 percent in Kansas City, Mo. In Los Angeles, drug-resistant staph accounted for 51 percent of skin infections, researchers said.
“The message for doctors is to recognize how prevalent these infections are,” said Dr. Gregory J. Moran of Olive View-University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center who was the lead author of the study.