MRSA ST398 causes more MRSA carriers and infections

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More evidence from the Netherlands that Maryn McKenna, the science journalist, and others, were right to identify and publicise MRSA st398 as a major threat to human life.

And readers will find that the writer was right to say that it has been hidden up in Britain.

We still await an admission from the British government and an acknowledgement of how long MRSA st398 has been present on British farms.

British veterinarians are going to have to explain their deplorable conduct before an unsympathetic world audience.

The organised libel and harassment campaign against the writer because of his disclosures will prove a good starting point for serious investigators and journalists.

Source here

Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2011 May 1. [Epub ahead of print]

Infection and colonization with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 versus other MRSA in an area with a high density of pig farms.

Wulf MW, Verduin CM, van Nes A, Huijsdens X, Voss A.

Source

PAMM Laboratory for Medical Microbiology, De Run 6250, 5504 DL, Veldhoven, The Netherlands, m.wulf@pamm.nl.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the emergence of animal related methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in an area with a high density of pig farms. A retrospective analysis was performed of all MRSA isolates in the laboratory database from 2002 till 2008 including typing results and clinical data from infection control archives and patient charts. The implementation of the screening of people in contact with pigs and veal calves for MRSA led to an increase in the average number of newly identified carriers from 16 per year between July 2002 and July 2006 to 148 between July 2006 and December 2008. This is a 925% increase of which 82% (108/132) was due to ST398. The majority (74%) came from targeted screening but 7% was due to unexpected findings. A wide range of infections with ST398 occurred in patients with and without contact with livestock varying from post-operative wound infections to sepsis and post-trauma osteomyelitis with an overrepresentation of spa type t567 among the clinical isolates. ST398 isolates were more often multi-resistant than isolates of other spa-types. The emergence of MRSA ST398 led to an increase in both MRSA carriers and MRSA infections.

PMID:

21533878

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]