Latest Staphylococcus aureus Stories

Genome sequence analysis helps characterize transmissible bacterium Using genome sequencing and household surveillance, National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their colleagues from Columbia University Medical Center and St. George's University of London have pieced together how a newly emerging type of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria has adapted to transmit more easily among humans. Their new study underscores the need for vigilance in surveillance of S. aureus. A...

Ondine Biomedical Inc. announces today that its MRSAid™ Photodisinfection System for nasal pathogen decolonization has successfully treated over 2,500 patients since April 2011 as a part of an infection control Quality Improvement Project being conducted at Vancouver General Hospital. This project, championed by Dr. Elizabeth Bryce, Regional Medical Director, Infection Control, Vancouver Coastal Health, is being undertaken with the objective of reducing the incidence of surgical site...

Scientists are reporting use of a new technology for sifting through the world's largest remaining pool of potential antibiotics to discover two new antibiotics that work against deadly resistant microbes, including the "super bugs" known as MRSA. Sean Brady and colleagues explain that an urgent need exists for new medications to cope with microbes that shrug off the most powerful traditional antibiotics. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, for instance, are...

A strain of the potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterium known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has jumped from food animals to humans, researchers reported Tuesday in the online journal mBio. The study, led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), suggests that MRSA CC398 likely started as a non-resistant (antibiotic-susceptible) strain in humans, but developed resistance to antibiotics after spreading to farm animals. MRSA is a well-known...

Aggressive infections in hospitals are an increasing health problem worldwide. The development of bacterial resistance is alarming. Now a young Danish scientist has found a natural substance in a Chilean rainforest plant that effectively supports the effect of traditional treatment with antibiotics. PhD Jes Gitz Holler from the University of Copenhagen discovered in a research project a compound that targets a particular resistance mechanism in yellow staphylococci. The development of...

New hope for total joint replacement patients Methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) infections are resistant to antibiotics and can cause a myriad of problems -- bone erosion, or osteomyelitis, which shorten the effective life of an implant and greatly hinder replacement of that implant. MRSA can result in prolonged disability, amputation and even death. Although only 2 percent of the American population that undergo total joint replacement surgery will suffer an infection, half of...

AUSTIN, TX and TORONTO, ON, Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Affinium Pharmaceuticals announced today dosing of the first patient in a multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating oral AFN-1252 in acute bacterial skin & skin structure infections ("ABSSSI").  The Phase 2 trial is the first human efficacy study conducted with this new class of antibiotic and follows the recently completed Phase 1 trials which demonstrated excellent safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of...

Manuka honey could help clear chronic wound infections and even prevent them from developing in the first place, according to a new study published in Microbiology. The findings provide further evidence for the clinical use of manuka honey to treat bacterial infections in the face of growing antibiotic resistance. Streptococcus pyogenes is a normal skin bacterium that is frequently associated with chronic (non-healing) wounds. Bacteria that infect wounds can clump together forming...

Retail pork products in the United States have a higher prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) than previously identified, according to new research by the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. MRSA can occur in the environment and in raw meat products, and is estimated to cause around 185,000 cases of food poisoning each year. The bacteria can also cause serious, life-threatening infections of the...

May Also Help Decrease Risk of MRSA Transmission to Patients The use of antimicrobial impregnated scrubs combined with good hand hygiene is effective in reducing the burden of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) on health care workers’ apparel and may potentially play a role in decreasing the risk of MRSA transmission to patients, according to a new study from Virginia Commonwealth University researchers. Previous findings have shown that hospital textiles may...