Revealed: The superbug's superbug

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Researchers in the United States believe they have explained how a highly virulent strain of the superbug called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is able to dodge the immune system.

This strain, called community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA, is more vicious than the hospital-borne strain of MRSA, the trigger for a global scare surrounding bacteria that are impervious to all but a handful of antibiotics.

CA-MRSA causes severe skin infections, including "flesh-eating" necrotising fasciitis, and potentially fatal blood poisoning.

It is now the cause of the majority of infections that result in trips to the emergency room in US hospitals, the New England Journal of Medicine reported last year.

Investigators led by Michael...