Community-Acquired ST398 MRSA Found in Sweden
This is bad. The piggy MRSA has entered the commensal human population.Posted on August 18, 2008 11:08 AM • 2 Comments •
Mike the Mad Biologist
Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology
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Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
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MRSA:
The Piggy MRSA Is in Hospitals
I've been saying for a while now that the 'piggy MRSA*', known as ST398, is going to be a problem. Always listen to the Mad Biologist.Posted on June 16, 2008 11:04 AM • 2 Comments •
The 'Piggy' MRSA: It's Here...
The piggy MRSA is here. Be afraid. Be very afraid.Posted on June 6, 2008 11:03 AM • 0 Comments •
The Silly Distinction Between CA-MRSA and HA-MRSA
It's all just MRSA.Posted on May 8, 2008 11:15 AM • 4 Comments •
Is NIAID Focusing on the Wrong Resistant Organisms?
Needed: more focus--money--on the ESKAPE organisms.Posted on April 30, 2008 11:09 AM • 0 Comments •
Some Good News About Vancomycin Resistant MRSA
It's very hard to evolve.Posted on April 24, 2008 11:03 AM • 5 Comments •
The Healthy Hospitals Act of 2007: A Good Start, but Not Enough
Occasionally, Congress crafts good, if not great, legislation regarding infection control.Posted on February 29, 2008 10:52 AM • 2 Comments •
MRSA: Jumping from Pigs to Humans?
It certainly looks that way.Posted on February 5, 2008 10:50 AM • 9 Comments •
Some (Relatively) Good News About Piggies and Resistant Bacteria
An epidemic strain of MRSA doesn't survive very well in the food chain.Posted on January 22, 2008 5:36 PM • 0 Comments •
New MRSA Strain Spreading Among Gay Men
One of the depressing things about the ascendancy of the Christopaths is that they hate any public health interventions that involves gay people. In the case of antibiotic resistance, that's not only evil, but it's also stupid.Posted on January 16, 2008 2:45 PM • 4 Comments •
Pigs, MRSA, and 'Superbugs'
The misuse of antibiotics in agriculture needs to stop, but I'm not sure it has much to do with community-acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA).Posted on December 20, 2007 10:01 AM • 3 Comments •
More About Pigs and MRSA
Another study suggests a link between pigs and MRSA.Posted on November 8, 2007 11:16 AM • 3 Comments •
FOX TV Misinformation About MRSA
FOX TV: doing its part to make the MRSA problem even worse.Posted on October 31, 2007 11:02 AM • 5 Comments •
Antibiotic Resistance Is a Breakdown of Infection Control
One of the hidden stories in the rise in the frequency of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains is that this has also been accompanied by an absolute increase in the number of infections.Posted on October 23, 2007 11:08 AM • 2 Comments •
Staph Deaths Exceed AIDS Deaths in U.S.
Two studies have bad news about staph infections. They're increasing--rapidly. And the antibiotic resistance problem doesn't just mean harder-to-treat infections, but more infections overall.Posted on October 17, 2007 11:03 AM • 7 Comments •
Wash Your Damn Hands, Part I Can't Count That High (Again)
We're getting worse at washing our hands. And guys, your penis is a loaded weapon--in a bad way.Posted on October 1, 2007 10:57 AM • 12 Comments •
If You Have Had MRSA...
then please take this survey.Posted on September 5, 2007 11:15 AM • 1 Comments •
This Little Piggy Went to Market...
....this little piggy had MRSA up its nose.Posted on August 8, 2007 11:16 AM • 5 Comments •
CTX-M-15 ESBLs: They're Loose
Well, that title has more obscure jargon than a bad Tom Clancy novel. But it has to do with antibiotic resistance. It's not good news.Posted on July 18, 2007 10:54 AM • 1 Comments •
Ambulances and MRSA
Here's a disturbing paper: "Can methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus be found in an ambulance fleet?" The answer?Posted on June 17, 2007 11:07 AM • 3 Comments •
KPC: An Emerging Threat
No, KPC isn't a new fast food restaurant. It's short for Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase. The bad news: it's very hard to treat. The good news: it's very rare...for now.Posted on May 4, 2007 10:32 AM • 3 Comments •
Why Resistance Matters: the Things That Don't Show Up in the Statistics
Last night, I was reading some of the comments you leave here, and, in response to a post about a surgeon who thinks evolution is irrelevant to medical practice (Got Antibiotic Resistance?), fellow ScienceBlogling Mark left a comment. I'll get to the comment in a minute, but tragically, I hear stories like his far too often.Posted on March 13, 2007 11:34 AM • 1 Comments •
Some Interesting Staphylococcus aureus Factoids
Or maybe terrifying is a better word. I just returned from the Network on Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus aureus meeting, where I learned some very interesting things about S. aureus (since I'm going to refer to MRSA, methicillin resistant S. aureus repeatedly, go check this link if you want to know more about MRSA):Posted on March 7, 2007 6:35 PM • 12 Comments •
A Commensal 'Epidemic' in E. coli?
It sure looks that way. Last night, I was talking to a colleague and he told me that several groups, including his, are seeing a very interesting pattern in commensal Escherichia coli (those E. coli that live in everyone's gut and aren't making us sick).Posted on March 1, 2007 11:11 AM • 23 Comments •
Why Political Pandering to Creationists Matters
When I heard that Republican Senator and presidential candidate John McCain spoke at the Discovery Institute, I was disappointed but not surprised. In March, there's going to be a report released about antibiotic resistance in bacteria. A major finding of the report:Posted on February 26, 2007 4:57 PM • 5 Comments •
It's the 'Boring' Bacteria That Make You Sick
I've blogged before about how, for children under five, it's not the 'sexy' microbes that kill, but instead, the run of the mill ones: the bacteria that cause diarrhea and pneumonia are the culprits. One of the things I have heard a lot of recently regarding antibiotic development (and related therapies) is that we need to focus on 'non-paradigm' and non-model organisms. There's a problem with that approach.Posted on February 15, 2007 8:38 PM • 6 Comments •
Good News About MRSA Infections
Here's some very good news about MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus): U.S. hospitals are beginning to implement their own versions of 'search and destroy' (italics mine):Posted on February 12, 2007 3:57 PM • 4 Comments •
A Potential Treatment For MRSA
Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major public health threat. Currently, there are only a few antibiotics that are effective against it, and resistance is even a problem with these antibiotics. There is a potential treatment that might be effective against MRSA: heteropolymer (HP) antibody therapy.Posted on January 31, 2007 4:04 PM • 1 Comments •
Michael Fumento: Still a Disingenuous Ideologue
So Michael Fumento has issued a challenge to put 'odds' on avian influenza, thinking that somehow I've stated that an avian influenza pandemic is likely (he's also accused me, a scientist, of being "anti-scientist" and "alarmist). Well, I'm not putting odds down because I've never said that a pandemic is likely. Then again, one should hardly be surprised when a professional conservative completely distorts what one says.Posted on January 2, 2007 3:12 PM • 3 Comments •
MRSA and VRSA
From the archives, I'm reposting this article about MRSA and VRSA. I've made some changes because the science and medical practice have changed.Posted on December 26, 2006 8:02 PM • 11 Comments •
I'm Famous!
...or at least, I was mentioned in Cell.Posted on December 19, 2006 11:49 AM • 0 Comments •
VRSA Hospital Insurance
I was recently at a conference where one speaker (Dr. Thomas O'Brien) suggested 'VRSA hospital insurance' to prevent the spread of vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus outbreaks ('VRSA'). Before I get into the plan, let's talk about VRSA.Posted on December 15, 2006 12:24 PM • 1 Comments •
If Mice Are Men...
then what we think makes community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) so infectious might be wrong. A to-be published article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (Dec. 15) asks "Is Panton-Valentine Leukocidin the major virulence determinant in community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus disease?" Before everyone wanders off due to boredom, let me translate: we don't really understand how CA-MRSA can kill you.Posted on November 14, 2006 4:45 PM • 5 Comments •
Senate Committee Supports Research in Antimicrobial Resistance
Occasionally, Congress does something right. In this case, they are making research to develop new antibiotics a priority:Posted on November 4, 2006 3:27 PM • 0 Comments •
MRSA and 'Search and Destroy'
I have discussed the "search and destroy" strategy for controlling and reducing methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) before. Search-and-destroy involves the screening of every patient and hospital worker for MRSA.Posted on October 26, 2006 11:43 AM • 3 Comments •
Staphylococcus aureus: The Wild Type Is Resistant
Geneticists often use the phrase wild type to describe the dominant allele--genetic variant--of a gene. In microbiology, we typically assume that the wild type of a bacterium is sensitive to antibiotics, and that the rare mutants (and recombinants) are antibiotic resistant.Posted on September 20, 2006 10:48 AM • 2 Comments •
An Interview About Antibiotics and Agriculture
Since I'm off to Woods Hole to give a lecture about antibiotic resistance, I thought this interview from the old site with Dr. Henrik C. Wegener about antibiotics and agriculture would be appropriate.Posted on August 11, 2006 8:31 AM • 2 Comments •
Platensimycin: a New Antibiotic
Joseph beat me to it: there's a Nature article about platensimycin, an antibiotic that inhibits lipid biosynthesis in Gram positive bacteria.Posted on August 9, 2006 12:45 PM • 0 Comments •
The Silent Killer: Hospital-Acquired Infections
From the archives, comes this post about the health crisis no one cares about (except for the Mad Biologist. We are very caring): the 90,000 deaths per year from infections people get while in the hospital.Posted on July 28, 2006 9:10 AM • 5 Comments •
New Edition of Animalcules
The carnival o'the wee beasties known as Animalcules is up at Science Matters. I have a post about MRSA and drug use in this edition. There's also a good post about drug resistance in the HIV virus. While I'm advertising...Posted on July 17, 2006 8:12 AM • 0 Comments •
