Superbug - Could be the New HIV!

A version of staph that is resistant to almost all known meds has killed many hospital patients in the U.S. However, it is now being spread outside of hospitals - especially in the San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and New York City areas to the point where some doctors are worried that it may become the new HIV.

Reuters Article

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday.

They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.

Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Now this is the most worrisome information:

"Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. "That's why we're trying to spread the message of prevention."

Scary stuff. Hope the prevention message works and this doesn't get spread into the general population the way HIV was.


[edit on 1/15/2008 by centurion1211]

Uh oh. Just saw that someone beat me to this article. I do think mine was a better OP, though. Anyway, close it if you must.