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MRSA Guidebook Translated into 23 Languages

Thanks to the State of California for publishing a guide to MRSA in 23 languages. It was done by the department of Education to help parents understand MRSA.

The documents are located here

The original press release can be found by visiting

State Schools Chief Jack O’Connell Announces Guide to MRSA
is Translated Into 23 Languages to Reach More Parents

Thank you to the State of California for producing the helpful translation!

MRSA and C difficile superbug deaths at 10,000 a year

It seem that the governments and hospitals still do not appreciate the full dangers and difficulties of preventing and treating MRSA. This article is from a UK news source describing the difficulty in predicting and preventing MRSA. it also shows the frustrations that it may be the hospital stay, not the illness that is worse for the patient.

MRSA and C difficile superbug deaths at 10,000 a year

Lois Rogers

The number of patients in British hospitals dying from superbug infections has reached more than 10,000 every year, according to an expert.

The new figure is about 20% higher than the official toll of 8,000 a year.

Mark Enright, professor of molecular epidemiology at Imperial College London, said that the real number of those succumbing to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C difficile) in the UK is higher than the government’s records show.

“I think it is at least 10,000 a year,” he said. “A lot of people are never tested for these infections and their deaths are put down to something else.”

“Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are now so well established here, we will never get rid of them,” said Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University and a world expert.

Latest European figures show that Britain’s hospitals are still teeming with treatment-resistant bacteria.

While strict hygiene measures have ensured low infection rates in other countries, microbiologists here are privately admitting that Britain’s problem is so out of control, it will be impossible to prevent the high level of deaths from continuing.

The government’s pledge to reduce rates of MRSA to half the 2004 level is unattainable, they say.

According to figures from Eurosurveillance, at least 42% of MRSA bacteria in British hospitals are “superstrains”, compared with rates of 20% or lower elsewhere.

In the 31-nation European antisuperbug league table, Britain lies close to the bottom, with an infection-control performance better than those of only Malta, Greece, Portugal and Romania.

For the full story visit

MRSA bill takes heat at Capitol

From the local Missouri news. It looks like the hospitals don’t like the idea of being watched when it comes to MRSA.

Infection-tracking measure bothers health professionals.

By T.J. GREANEY of the Tribune’s staff

Published Sunday, March 16, 2008

MRSA is responsible for more deaths than AIDS in the United States. The so-called superbug also is causing a stir in Missouri as legislators and consumer advocacy groups sound an alarm over MRSA and health professionals accuse them of playing politics and using murky science.

Rep. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, recently abandoned an attempt to list MRSA – methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – as a “reportable condition” that would require notification to the state Department of Health and Senior Services, saying he was forced to “water down” a bill he introduced.

“When you buy meat at the grocery, you know it’s prepared at a factory where people have to wear a hairnet and walk through bleach and all sorts of protections,” Schaaf said. “You know, we don’t have that at the hospitals.”

Schaaf is one of a handful of physicians in the Missouri House and a champion of 2004 legislation that expanded reporting of infections in the state. His pending bill, HB 1546, would have required testing for MRSA in patients and doctors, isolation of infected patients and public reporting of MRSA hospital infection rates.

Eddie Hedrick, the emerging infections coordinator for the state, saw several problems with the bill. Hedrick and Linda Johnson, University of Missouri Health Care infection control manager, criticized it in testimony last month at the Capitol, causing Schaaf to pull controversial aspects.

“There’s a lot of politics involved in this whole thing,” said Hedrick, who contends media reports have been “drawing cloudy lines” between MRSA that is deadly and commonplace types of MRSA. He said there are two types of MRSA bugs:

● Health-care associated MRSA first appeared 50 years ago and occurs mostly in hospitals or nursing homes among patients with weakened immune systems.

● Community associated MRSA emerged in the last 10 years and occurs mostly among young people who spend time in close quarters and practice lax hygiene. CAMRSA outbreaks are generally on the skin and result in boils that typically disappear without treatment but can be deadly on rare occasions.

For the rest of the story visit

Copyright © 2008 MRSA Diagnosis

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