MRSA: The New Superbug?
Meet the germ that's been linked to more deaths in the United States than AIDS
By Diana Hembree, Paige Bierma, Paola Laverde, Tim Fitzgerald, and James Burke
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVE
We're in the middle of an epidemic of drug-resistant bacteria known as MRSA, which is linked to nearly 19,000 deaths a year and is immune to virtually all frontline antibiotics. The increasingly dangerous germ threatens to roll medicine back to the days before penicillin was invented, when even a small cut from a kitchen knife could usher in a life-threatening infection. Luckily, we still have powerful antibiotics that can stop MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). But the clock is ticking, because the wily germ is busy figuring out a way to outsmart even our antibiotics of last resort. Watch our five-part video package to learn how to recognize -- and prevent -- these potentially deadly infections. Click here or on the picture to start. Multimedia Team
Director and producer: Paige Bierma and Diana Hembree
Video production and editing: Paige Bierma, James Burke, Tim Fitzgerald, Diana Hembree, and Paola Laverde
Camera work: Paige Bierma, Paola Laverde, Tim Fitzgerald, James Burke
Lighting director: Fabian Redrovan
Senior editor and production supervisor: Paige Bierma
Narration: James Burke, Tim Fitzgerald, Paola Laverde
Flash design and animation: David Dudley
Flash production: David Dudley and Eric Turner
Photo credits: Getty Images, Newscom.com, Shutterstock, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Additional video footage: Shutterstock, Getty Images
Web production: Deepi Brar
Executive producer: Diana Hembree Troubleshooting
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Note: If you're at work, you may have trouble downloading or installing Flash or other programs because of firewalls, lack of administrative rights, or other restrictions on your network or computer.
Further Resources | •National MRSA Education Initiative: Preventing MRSA Skin Infections |
References
Interview with Francoise Perdreau Remington, PhD, MRSA expert and professor emerita at UCSF Medical School, epidemiologist and microbiologist, and longtime director of the molecular epidemiology lab at San Francisco General Hospital.
Interview with Stanley Deresinski, MD, an adjunct clinical professor at Stanford Medical School and an infectious disease specialist who serves as an informal consultant on MRSA to various pro sports teams.
Interview with Lisa Asta, MD, author, pediatrician, and director CHK of Casa Verde Pediatrics in Walnut Creek, California, who has treated more than a dozen cases of MRSA among children.
Interview with Deborah Coleman, Northern California massage therapist and crossing guard, who was successfully treated for an invasive MRSA infection.
Interview with Scott Shaw, Director of Sports Medicine, San Jose State University, California.
Interview with BP Diep, PhD, researcher and longtime colleague of Dr. Francoise Perdreau Remington
Interview with Joey Fong Lamboy, 9, of Pinole, California.
Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. JAMA. 2007 Oct 17;298(15):1763-71.
Preventing MRSA infections: finding it is not enough. JAMA. 2008 Mar 12;299(10):1190-2.
Liu C, Graber CJ, Karr M, Diep BA, Basuino L, Schwartz BS, Enright MC, O´Hanlon SJ, Thomas JC, Perdreau-Remington F, et al A population-based study of the incidence and molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus disease in San Francisco, 2004-2005.
Clin Infect Dis. 2008 Jun 1;46(1)
Deresinski, S. Vancomycin: does it still have a role as an antistaphylococcal agent? Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2007 Jun;5(3):393-401. Review (1):1637-46.
Reviewed by Michael Potter, MD, an attending physician and associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who is board certified in family practice.
Our reviewers are members of Consumer Health Interactive's medical advisory board.
To learn more about our writers and editors, click here.
First published June 20, 2008
Last updated January 30, 2009
Copyright © 2008 Consumer Health Interactive
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