MRSA Latest News

For the third time in four months, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University a research grant aimed at helping people infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Taken together, all three NIH grants total $8.57 million...

The National Institute of Allergy and Infections Disease has awarded a five-year $31 million contract to National Jewish Health, which is leading a consortium of academic medical centers seeking to better understand skin infections associated with atopic dermatitis...

The emergence and spread of drug-resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) threatens global TB control efforts, and there is an urgent need for new diagnostic tests that rapidly identify drug sensitivity profiles of TB strains...

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center are using computers to identify how one strain of dangerous bacteria might mutate in the same way a champion chess player tries to anticipate an opponent's strategies. The predictive software could result in better drug design to beat antibiotic-resistant mutations...

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST), a leading acute care therapeutics company, announced that its Phase 2 safety study of CUBICINŽ (daptomycin for injection) in the treatment of prosthetic joint infections caused by certain Gram positive pathogens met its study objectives...

Pitt County Memorial Hospital (PCMH) has announced results of a study demonstrating that universal surveillance for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) decreased health care-associated infections (HAIs) related to devices...

Rapid identification and aggressive infection control measures allowed a Dallas hospital to stop the spread of Acinetobacter baumannii, a type of bacteria that has become increasingly prevalent in healthcare facilities and is resistant to most antibiotics...

To preserve their power to treat infections, antibiotics should be assigned to a special drug class, Stuart B. Levy, president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA), the leading, independent global organization dedicated to preserving the power of antibiotics, told a gathering of scientists meeting yesterday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases...

Scientists have identified the genes necessary for making a highly potent and clinically unexploited antibiotic in the fight against multi-resistant pathogens...

Two immune system proteins could be the culprit behind many lupus patients' resistance to widely used steroid treatments, scientists with the Baylor Research Institute (BRI) in Dallas announced today. It is estimated that more than 5 million people suffer from lupus worldwide...

A team of scientists from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the University of Montreal have identified vitamin B3 as a potential antifungal treatment...

Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) cleared its new LightCyclerŽ MRSA Advanced Test for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for clinical use in the United States...

Ecolab Inc. announced the launch of Virasept?, Ecolab's first ready-to-use (no mixing required) hard surface disinfectant approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be effective against Clostridium difficile spores. Clostridium difficile is a highly drug-resistant bacterium that causes diarrhea and severe lower intestinal inflammation, which can be life-threatening...

Scientists studying the so-called "superbug" MRSA have identified one of the components responsible for making it so deadly. Staphylococcus aureus is a type of bacteria commonly found on the skin that is relatively harmless unless it gets into the bloodstream, where it can cause blood poisoning and create abscesses in organs such as the heart and brain...

Sweet news for those looking for new antibiotics: A new research published in the July 2010 print edition of the FASEB Journal explains for the first time how honey kills bacteria...

Recognizing that the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance is a public health threat and that pharmacists are integral in antimicrobial stewardship programs, ASHP Advantage has launched an initiative to improve antimicrobial practice in hospitals. The initiative is designed to update pharmacists about implementing or augmenting antimicrobial stewardship programs in their institutions...

In response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) new draft guidance on the appropriate uses for antimicrobial drugs in animal agriculture, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is grateful the FDA is looking to the experts-veterinarians-to help address this important issue...

Bees could have a key role to play in urgently-needed new treatments to fight the virulent MRSA bug, according to research led at the University of Strathclyde. The scientists found that a substance known as beeglue or propolis, originating from beehives in the Pacific region, was active against MRSA, which causes potentially fatal infections, particularly in hospital patients...

A two-year effort aimed at preventing the emergence of drug-resistant malaria near the border between Cambodia and Thailand is showing signs of success, Duong Socheat, head of Cambodia's National Center for Malaria Control, said on Friday, DPA/Earth Times reports...

In the interests of human health, the US Food and Drug Administration is urging farmers and veterinarians to reduce their use of antibiotics in spurring growth of food-producing animals. The FDA issued draft guidance on Monday that outlines the agency's current thinking on why antibiotics that are "important for therapeutic use in humans" should be used sparingly in livestock...

The Pennsylvania Department of Health found that 12.5 percent fewer patients contracted infections in the state's hospitals in 2009 than a year earlier, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But the reports shows that there were 25,914 infections in 2009...

Resistance to artemisinin-based malaria medications seems to be spreading beyond western Cambodia, where it was first detected, U.S. global malaria coordinator Timothy Ziemer said during a visit to the region this week for a conference, Agence France-Presse reports...

Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) who have Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) detected in their respiratory tract have worse survival compared to CF patients without MRSA, according to a study in the June 16 issue of JAMA. The most common cause of death in CF is respiratory failure secondary to pulmonary infection...

An outbreak of infection due to linezolid and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LRSA) in 12 intensive care unit patients in Spain was associated with transmission within the hospital and extensive usage of the antibiotic linezolid, often used for the treatment of serious infections, with reductions in linezolid use and infection-control measures associated with resol...

Researchers have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in seven species of sharks and redfish captured in waters off Belize, Florida, Louisiana and Massachusetts. Most of these wild, free-swimming fish harbored several drug-resistant bacterial strains. The study, published in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in every fish species sampled...