A form of antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus bacteria has been found on five beaches in Washington state. Worse, scientists believe the state is not the only one with this problem.

Infectious disease specialists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have mapped the gene profiles of children with severe Staph Infections, providing crucial insight into how the human immune system is programmed to respond to this pathogen and opening new doors for improved therapeutic interventions.

Society is fast losing its battle against emerging and reemerging infections. HIV continues to inflict considerable human and economic damage, and HINI is causing death, overwhelming health services, and threatening to intensify in the fall with a more virulent strain. The tuberculosis bacillus shows signs of resisting conventional treatment, as does the malaria parasite.

MRSA is a major problem in nursing homes with one in four residents carrying the MRSA bacteria, a study by Queen’s University Belfast and Antrim Area Hospital has found.

A study investigated whether MRSA and C.difficile could be passed between pet therapy dogs and patients. The findings suggested that MRSA and C. difficile may have been transferred to the fur and paws of these canine visitors through patients handling or kissing the dogs, or through exposure to a contaminated healthcare environment.

Two common strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, were virtually eradicated in the laboratory by exposing them to a wavelength of blue light, in a process called photo-irradiation that is described in a paper published online ahead of print in Photomedicine and Laser Surgery.

Rates of antibiotic-resistant head and neck infections increased in pediatric patients nationwide between 2001 and 2006, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Pre-operative screening of patients for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) may be an effective way to reduce infection rates following otolaryngic surgeries, according to new research published in the January 2009 issue of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

Infectious disease experts warn that new drugs are urgently needed to treat six drug-resistant bacteria that cause most hospital infections and increasingly escape the effects of antibiotics.

A dangerous MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) hospital infection is killing patients in hospitals and nursing homes at an alarming rate. Harborview Medical Center in Seattle has been ignoring its severity for forty years while it resists efforts to stem the growth of the sometimes deadly MRSA infection that puts its patients at risk.

Three Virginia Commonwealth University epidemiologists are downplaying the value of mandatory universal nasal screening of patients for MRSA, arguing that proven, hospital-wide infection control practices can prevent more of the potentially fatal infections.

A new paper by Shahriar Mobashery, Navari Family Professor in Life Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, and researchers in his lab provides important insights into promising new antibiotics aimed at combating MRSA.