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Whole-genome analysis helps identify source of MRSA outbreak on infant ward. A superbug outbreak that plagued a special-care neonatal unit in Cambridge, UK, for several months last year was brought to an end by insights gained from genome sequencing. The case, reported today in Lancet Infectious Disease, marks the first time that scientists have sequenced pathogen genomes to actively control an ongoing outbreak1. Sharon Peacock, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, and her team became involved in the outbreak after three infants at nearby Rosie Hospital’s 24-cot special-care baby unit tested positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) within...

"The strain of a once-innocuous staph infection that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics kills more people each year than the AIDS virus and in most cases is contracted in hospitals. ...SB 1058 will require hospitals to report infections such as MRSA to the Department of Health Services, effective Jan. 1."

Source: Texas A&M Health Science Center Date: January 28, 2007 Bacteria In Staph Infections Can Cause Necrotizing Pneumonia Science Daily — Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology at Houston have discovered a toxin present in the bacteria responsible for the current nationwide outbreak of staph infections also has a role in an aggressive pneumonia that is often fatal within 72 hours. "The virulence of CA-MRSA (community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) strains that produce the PVL (Panton Valentine leukocidin) toxin presents a nightmare scenario," said M. Gabriela Bowden, Ph.D., research assistant professor at HSC-IBT and...

Close window Published online: 18 January 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070115-10 Research highlights nastier form of MRSAToxin-laden bacterium makes for a killer in the community.Heidi LedfordResearchers have unpicked why a particularly nasty form of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which can strike down otherwise healthy victims outside of the hospital, is quite so vicious. The results, says Gabriela Bowden, an immunologist at Texas A&M University in Houston and an author on the study, could be used to derive new therapies to combat the troublesome bug. The study, published in this week's Science, shows that a toxin produced by the bacterium, called Panton Valentine...