It seems that MRSA is suddenly in the news today. However, this superbug dates back to 1961 when it was first discovered in the U.K. Then in October 2007 a CDC report was published in an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Herein it has been suggested that it is just now being noticed that these infections are more prevalent than had been previously thought. As such, there really in not an increase in MRSA. However, it means that MRSA is now being measured better than it has ever been measured in the past. In fact, today we now know that while in 1999 there were only 127,000 and then in 2005 there were more than 278,000 cases. During this same time period deaths also increased from 11,000 to more than 17,000 deaths.
With this in mind you may be wondering if this was primarily a hospital problem that has now become a community problem. Unfortunately, there is no information as to whether MRSA Superbug has evolved within the community. However, one thing is for sure and that is that the community-based form of MRSA did not originate from the hospital form of MRSA. Nevertheless, it is still widely believed that drug-resistant bacteria may have developed from the overuse and misuse of antibiotics.
Throughout history, staph infections have always been the most common and the most serious types of infections. The only difference is that today these infections are now resistant to antibiotics (MRSA). This type of infection has risen dramatically in comparison with those that are not resistant to antibiotics due to the fact that antibiotics have been both overused and misuse throughout history. Plus, it is also important to realize that the number of people who at risk for MRSA today (those people who have a chronic illness, are on kidney dialysis, have been exposed in a health care setting or who use intravenous catheters or other implanted medical devices) has steadily increased due to changes in the health care system as well as the fact that the aging population has also risen.
Around 85% of today's MRSA infections are still found within hospitals and other health care facilities, instead of in the community. Yet, there have been clusters of community-associated MRSA skin infections found primarily amongst athletes, military members, children, Pacific Islanders, Alaskan Natives, American Indians, gay males and prisoners. This is due to the following risk factors that are present within these groups of people:
This should explain to you that there are not necessarily more cases of MRSA Superbug today but that instead health care professionals are more closely monitoring it.
Learn the MRSA Superbug Common Questions.