MRSA - Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Blog

MRSA Review - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in food products: cause for concern or case for complacency?

Bill Marler — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:56:09 -0800

J. A. J. W. Kluytmans

VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam and Amphia Hospital, Breda, The Netherlands
Corresponding author and reprint requests: J. A. J. W. Kluytmans, Laboratory for Microbiology and Infection Control, Amphia Hospital, Location Molengracht, PO Box 90158, 4800 RK Breda, The Netherlands - E-mail: jankluytmans@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The widespread use of antimicrobial agents, in combination with insufficient infection control measures, is the main driver of the current pandemic of antimicrobial resistance in human pathogens. The use of antimicrobials in food animal production also contributes, because resistant organisms and resistance genes can spread from animals to humans by direct contact or through the food chain. An important, traditionally human, pathogen, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is currently endemic in many hospitals around the world and has also emerged in the community. Recently, a new reservoir of MRSA has been identified in food production animals and people in contact with these animals. This involves a specific clone, multilocus sequence type 398 (ST398), which has spread extensively among animals. ST398 has also been found in up to 11.9% of retail meat samples in several surveys from different parts of the world, posing a potential threat to human health.

Seal Shield Announces World's First Dishwasher Safe Cell Phone

Bill Marler — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:24:20 -0800

Seal Shield LLC today announced the new SEAL CELL(TM) Waterproof Cell Phone. The product is the world's first cell phone to be washable and antimicrobial. The Seal Shield(TM) SEAL CELL(TM) phone is easy to clean. Regular cleaning in the sink or dishwasher can help prevent the spread of germs, viruses and bacteria, which are known to harbor on frequently touched surfaces.

The SEAL CELL(TM) has been created to help reduce the risk of worldwide cross contaminations, including H1N1, Norovirus and the "superbug," MRSA. Dr. Charles Gerba, University of Arizona, tested numerous common surfaces and found cell phones are the highest carrier of bacteria with 25,000 germs per square inch, or 500 times more bacteria than the average toilet. Unlike any other cell phone, the Seal Shield(TM) SEAL CELL(TM) phone combines Seal Shield(TM) waterproof technology and SILVER SEAL(TM) technology for antimicrobial protection of the product, making it dishwasher safe and resistant to mold, mildew and odor causing bacteria.

The SEAL CELL(TM) is Dual SIM, Dual Holding Quad Band GSM compatible and features a 2.0 megapixel camera with video and torch light, GPRS, MMS, background noise elimination, walkie-talkie function, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS and a ruggedized touch screen. The SEAL CELL(TM) is waterproof to international IPx7 standards and is completely dishwasher safe. The phone also contains SILVER SEAL(TM) technology for antimicrobial protection.

SEAL SHIELD(TM) will be demonstrating the new SEAL CELL(TM) phone at the international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 7th-11th. The product is scheduled to begin shipping in early 2010. Pricing has not yet been released.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causing illness in and out of hospitals

Bill Marler — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:53:02 -0800

According to the CDC, Scripps-Howard and the St. Petersburg Times Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is found not only in hospitals and other health-care facilities, where it is deadliest, responsible for more than 70 percent of all hospital staph infections and killing some 20,000 Americans annually. MRSA started turning up outside hospitals in the late 1990s in schools, gyms and military barracks, evolving into community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA. Now a new study published this month says that strain is bouncing back into hospitals, increasing the infection risk to the most vulnerable people.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 14 percent of people with MRSA have the community-associated strain. Many are young. A Minnesota study found that the average age of a CA-MRSA patient is 23, compared to 68 for other MRSA patients. Starting in the late 1990s, most cases of CA-MRSA were linked to places like gyms and schools where people are in close proximity and might share exercise equipment, bathroom and shower facilities, razors, towels, uniforms and other clothing. A study in the December issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that health-care workers, who often move between outpatient clinics and inpatient hospital rooms, may be dragging the bacteria with them and infecting hospitalized patients.

What is MRSA?

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacteria that can cause terrible skin infections, pneumonia, blood poisoning, even death. It is resistant to common antibiotics, like penicillin, making it difficult to treat.

How to protect yourself:

-- Wash hands frequently.

-- Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer when you can't wash.

-- Bandage wounds and cuts until healed.

-- Avoid contact with bandages, infected skin of others.

-- Wipe down shared gym equipment before and after use.

-- Clean shared surfaces, then use disinfectant or bleach solution.

-- Wash and machine-dry laundry that contacts infected skin.

-- Don't share personal items such as towels and razors.

-- If you develop a painful sore that looks like a pimple or boil, seek medical attention.

U.S. researchers say they are learning to stop methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus before it starts.

Bill Marler — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:55:32 -0800

Jeff Brinker of the University of New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratories says the application of a simple protein can halt the switch of MRSA and other bacteria from a harmless to a virulent form. The control of such strains of MRSA has been a formidable problem in hospitals, Brinker says.

Brinker research team's nonantibiotic approach may make it easier to treat staphylococci strains like MRSA that have become drug resistant.

"The good news is that by inhibiting the single cell's signaling molecules with a small protein, we were able to suppress any genetic reprogramming into the bacterium's more virulent form," Brinker said in a statement. "Our work clearly showed the strategy worked."

The findings, published in Nature Chemical Biology, shows the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria isolated in individual, self-assembled nanoscale compartments. Isolation of an individual bacterium previously had been achieved only computationally, leaving open questions of how a physically and chemically isolated bacterium would actually behave.

The study also demonstrates that it was the release of signaling peptides from a single cell that acted as a trigger to reprogram that same cell so that it released toxins.

MRSA Spreading Rapidly

Bill Marler — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:16:10 -0800

MRSA Cases of community-acquired MRSA infection, the potentially deadly superbug that is resistant to most antibiotics, are increasing and spreading rapidly into hospitals as well, researchers reported today.

MRSA -- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- can attack wounds and trigger lethal bloodstream infections. Infections cause about 20,000 deaths each year in the United States. MRSA has traditionally spread in hospitals, which is called hospital-acquired MRSA. "But the findings from this study suggest that there is a significant reservoir in the community as well," the lead author of the study, Eili Klein, said in a news release. Community-acquired strains can be picked up in almost any public place, such as schools and gyms.

The study analyzed data from 300 microbiology labs serving hospitals around the country and found a sevenfold jump in the proportion of community-acquired MRSA in outpatient hospital units. This is significant because healthcare professionals frequently move between outpatient care settings and hospitals, perhaps facilitating the spread of the germs. Researchers found that MRSA infections increased more than 90% among outpatients with staph infections and now account for more than half of all staph infections.

Community-acquired MRSA is generally less dangerous than hospital-acquired MRSA, but it can still be deadly. Hospital officials, who have already adopted procedures to limit the spread of MRSA, will have to redouble their efforts to stop the community-associated infections. "This emerging epidemic of community-associated MRSA strains appears to add to the already-high MRSA burden in hospitals," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, a researcher with Extending the Cure, a project that examines solutions to antibiotic resistance at the Washington, D.C.-based organization Resources for the Future. Resources for the Future conducted the study with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The study appears online in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Antibiotic Resistance on Rise in Europe

Bill Marler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:53 -0800

Antibiotics to prevent bacterial infection in organ transplants, hip replacements, cancer chemotherapy, intensive care and neonatal care for premature babies will become ineffective due to antibiotics overuse, according to Dominique Monnet at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Approximately 25,000 deaths are caused by antibiotics in Europe each year; six by the most common infections including MSRA. Superbug infections currently add 900 million euros each year to hospital costs.

"The latest data confirms that across the European Union the number of patients infected by resistant bacteria is increasing and that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health," says Monnet.

Responsible use of antibiotics is advocated by the ECDC as key to preventing the development of resistant bacteria. November 18 is this year's Antibiotic Awareness Day designed to raise awareness of how to use antibiotics responsibly.

In late November, the ECDE is due to publish a new survey of intensive care specialists across Europe which reveals 21% of specialists said they had seen – within the last six months – three or more patients suffering from infections that were totally or almost totally resistant to antibiotics. 8% of the specialists had seen more that 10 such patients over the same period.

Antibiotic-Resistant Infections (MRSA) Cost the U.S. Healthcare System in Excess of $20 Billion Annually

Bill Marler — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:10:51 -0800

The Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) and Cook County Hospital (currently John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County) announce the release of an eye-opening study on the economic impact of antibiotic overuse and antibiotic-resistant infections (ARIs) sponsored by an unrestricted educational grant from bioMerieux and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The authors conducted an exhaustive chart-by-chart review of 1,391 patients hospitalized in the year 2000, 188 of which had ARIs (13.5 percent). The medical costs attributed to these ARIs ranged from $18,588 to $29,069 per patient, while the duration of hospital stay was extended 6.4 - 12.7 days for affected patients. Additionally, the excess mortality attributed to ARIs alone was 6.5 percent -- a death rate two-fold higher than in patients without ARIs. The authors also estimated the societal costs incurred at this hospital as a result of the ARIs to be between $10.7 and $15 million, which is the cost that hits the families of those infected.

The study, "Hospital and Societal Costs of Antimicrobial Resistant Infections in a Chicago Teaching Hospital: Implications for Antibiotic Stewardship," analyzed the medical and human cost associated with ARIs. It was conducted at the Cook County (Stroger) Hospital of Chicago. Several studies have looked at the medical costs of these infections, but this is the first to look at the cost to families as well.

Antibiotic resistance is fueled by misuse and overuse of antibiotics. Bacteria become resistant to the very medicines developed to treat and cure the infection they cause. ARIs include methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and a growing number of additional pathogens that are developing resistance to many common antibiotics.

I knew I hated computers - now it is MRSA

Bill Marler — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:11:35 -0800

I was reading an article on MRSE from Taiwan that hospital computers may harbor MRSA. Apparently, researchers in Taiwan found computer keyboards and computer mice harbor pathogens -- including Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. However, the researchers suggest few infections can be traced to the computers. The MRSA and other pathogens are not being spread around medical facilities because healthcare workers seem to be using good hand hygiene.

The research team, led by Yen-hsu Chen of Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan, looked at computer equipment in a 1,600-bed hospital with 282 computers. They found 17.4 percent contamination rate of S. aureus, Acinetobacter spp. or Pseudomonas spp. The contamination rates of MRSA and A. baumannii in the ward computers were 1.1 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively. No P. aeruginosa was found.

Yet Another Way to Contract MRSA...The Beach?

MRSA Lawyer — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:49:27 -0800

According to a new article published in USA Today by Steve Sternberg, your local beach can be added to the ever-growing list of places where MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staph aureus, can be found. As many of you know, MRSA is a potentially life-threatening bacteria that is highly resistant to many types of antibiotics.

This new information comes from a recent study completed by researchers at the University of Washington who found MRSA in in marine water and beach sand from seven public beaches located around the Puget Sound.

The researchers identified Staph bacteria on nine of 10 public beaches that they tested. Seven of 13 Staph aureus samples, found on five beaches, were multidrug resistant, says lead investigator Marilyn Roberts.

"Our results suggest that public beaches may be a reservoir for possible transmission of MRSA," she told the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy here, the leading international conference on new and resurgent diseases.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been around for almost as long as there have been antibiotics. Until recently, researchers have been able to outwit them by developing new antibiotics. Now, however, the pipeline of new antibiotics has slowed, and germs are coming perilously close to winning the race.

The best available treatment for MRSA, vancomycin, is more expensive than other antibiotics and takes a long time to conquer the infection. "It's like trying to turn an ocean liner around," says Henry Chambers of the University of California, San Francisco.

Until a decade ago, most multidrug-resistant Staph aureus infections were found in hospitals among severely ill patients. That changed about seven years ago with the emergence of a strain hardy enough, and virulent enough to infect healthy people, usually in their skin and soft tissues.

Since about 30% of healthy people carry Staph aureus, most people are able to survive infection. But it is fatal in about 20% of people who develop MRSA bloodstream infections and 40% of those who develop MRSA pneumonia. It has emerged as a killer of people with severe influenza, including the new H1N1, or swine, flu.

Curiously, Roberts says, five of the samples found on the beach and in the sand more closely resembled hospital-acquired MRSA than the bacteria found in the community. Three of the samples, from three beaches 10 miles apart, were virtually identical, she says. "One would think they came from the same source," Roberts added.

The most likely scenario, she says, is that the source is environmental, not human, but "where all of these organisms are coming from and how they're getting seeded (on the beaches) is not clear." Tests of ocean water and sand taken from two beaches in Southern California turned up no Staph aureus at all.

Genetic analysis also suggested that the Puget Sound beaches, and maybe others, may represent an "ecosystem," where bacteria thrive, mingle and swap genes, particularly those confer antibiotic resistance.

Roberts says there may be much more MRSA than her team's "grab and go" sampling experiments indicated. "The fact that we found these organisms suggests that the amount is much higher than we previously thought," she says.

Lance Peterson, a University of Chicago infectious disease specialist who was not involved in the study, says, "Staph is a salt-loving organism. It's not surprising to see it in the ocean."

More States Require Hospitals To Test For MRSA

MRSA Lawyer — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:46:10 -0800

States are sometimes called the "laboratories of democracy" for trying new ideas long before they are commonly accepted. At least five states --California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Tennessee --are now requiring hospitals to test for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and report infection rates.

Legislatures in New York, Nevada, Kentucky, South Carolina, Massachusetts Maine, and Washington State are considering it. At the federal level, Veterans Administration hospitals require MRSA testing.

MRSA infects 90,000 Americans each year and kills an estimated 19,000; more than AIDS.

One MRSA victim, Jeanine Thomas, who successfully lobbied for the new requirement on Illinois hospitals, believes that the testing and isolation of the infected will eventually wipe out the Superbug.

Many infectious disease experts, however, do not agree. All sorts of germs infect 1.7 million Americans in hospitals each year and killing 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).

CDC lists testing upon entry to a hospital as an option, but says there is no evidence it is better than the combination of methods used by most hospitals. These include wearing gloves, gowns, and other protective gear, hand washing, and proper use of antibiotics.

John Hopkins Center For Water and Health Warns About Antibiotic Abuse By Factory Farms

MRSA Lawyer — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:57:27 -0800

The link between antibiotic use on factory farms and resistance to treatments for infections like MRSA is gaining ground with big time researchers. The latest to weigh in on the subject is the prestigious John Hopkins Center for Water and Health.

Consider these quotes from Center Director Kellogg Schwab as reported in the Baltimore Chronicle:

"There were 10 million E. coli per liter [of sampled waste]. Ten million. And you have a hundred million liters in some of those pits. So you can have trillions of bacteria present, of which 89 percent are resistant to drugs. That's a massive amount that in a rain event can contaminate the environment."

He adds, "This development of drug resistance scares the hell out of me. If we continue on and we lose the ability to fight these microorganisms, a robust, healthy individual has a chance of dying, where before we would be able to prevent that death." Schwab says that if he tried, he could not build a better incubator of resistant pathogens than a factory farm.”

Schwab heads the center, a unit of John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He says the danger of breeding resistant pathogens is not widely enough accepted.

"It's not appreciated until it's your mother, or your son, or you trying to fight off an infection that will not go away because the last mechanism to fight it has been usurped by someone putting it into a pig or a chicken."

For much more about what the John Hopkins researchers are up to, check out the Baltimore Chronicle.

Studies Suggest Just Handling Meat Can Spread MRSA

MRSA Lawyer — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:00:24 -0800

A couple weeks back, in "Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) --It's What's For Dinner!", we reported on a European study that those working closely with animals were most likely to contract MRSA.

Now, however, Stephanie Woodard, writing for Prevention Magazine on the MSNBC website, is claiming more of us are at risk because enough MRSA has found its way into retail cuts of pork, chicken and beef to make handling of meat dangerous.

Ms. Woodard writes that:

"You may not have the same close contact with meat that a processing plant worker has, but scientists warn there is reason for concern. Most of us handle meat daily, as we bread chicken cutlets, trim fat from pork, or form chopped beef into burgers. Cooking does kill the microbe, but MRSA thrives on skin, so you can contract it by touching infected raw meat when you have a cut on you hand, explains Stuart Levy, MD, a Tufts University professor of microbiology and medicine. MRSA also flourishes in nasal passages, so touching your nose after touching meat gives the bug another way to enter your body, adds University of Iowa Professor Tara Smith."

It was Professor Smith who in 2008 found a new MRSA strain, called ST398, in 45 percent of the farmers and 49 percent of the pigs in two large midwestern hog operations. The connection between animal and human health raised by the study still did not cause either state or federal government to inspect comprehensively for MRSA

Other studies have found MRSA in retail cuts of pork, chicken and beef sold in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. For example, according to Prevention, a Louisiana State University study tested 120 cuts of meat purchased at local retail outlets. MRSA was found in 4 percent of the pork cuts and 1 percent of the beef.

Check out the entire story at MSNBC.

Manuka Honey Resists MRSA, According To Australian Researchers

MRSA Attorney — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:53:40 -0800

This sounds too good to be true, but you never know. Might it be possible to successfully combat MRSA with honey? Well, a special type of honey made by bees down-under. It seems the bees involve rely on flowers that grow on the Manuka bush. The Manuka bush grows in both New Zealand and Australia. So, its the Manuka honey that's the MRSA fighter.

Here's more from the NZ-based site, Stuff:

Australian researchers have identified a type of bacteria-blasting honey capable of taking on the superbugs that have infected the nation's hospitals.

It's well known that honey has anti-bacterial properties but scientists from the University of Sydney say a particular type derived from native tea tree is especially potent.

They believe it could offer a solution to the growing resistance of bacteria, such as the superbug known as MRSA, to conventional antibiotics.

"Most bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one antibiotic and there is an urgent need for new ways to treat and control surface infections," says Associate Professor Dee Carter, of the university's School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences.

"But bugs that are resistant to a huge variety of antibiotics are not resistant to honey ... we've never seen an organism that has any kind of intrinsic resistance."

Dr Carter, working alongside Dr Shona Blair, tested honey produced by bees that fed on Leptospermum, commonly known as tea tree.

She said the honey worked against bacteria in a number of ways.

It was a bad growth environment for bacteria because it was mildly acidic with high sugar levels.

It also contained a precursor chemical to hydroperoxide and the molecule methylglyoxal, both toxic to bacterial cells.

And the honey appeared to have properties, not yet understood, which prevented bacteria from developing a resistance despite tests designed to induce such a response.

In particular, staphylococcus bacteria -- such as MRSA or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus -- were "very sensitive" to the honey and seemed to suffer "multi-system failures," Dr Carter said.

"Our research is the first to clearly show these honey-based products could, in many cases, replace antibiotic creams on wounds and equipment such as catheters," she said.

"Using honey as an intermediate treatment could also prolong the life of antibiotics."

Medicinal applications involving honey, such as impregnated bandages, have been developed but Dr Carter said they were not yet widely used in hospitals.

"People think, 'Honey? That's a bit of a joke'," she said.

"If it had more of a chemical (sounding name) ... it would probably get better acceptance.

"But it's not just a homemade recipe, it's got scientific validation behind it."

The research is published online in the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs Suffering From MRSA; Straw Vetoes Release From Prison

MRSA Lawyer — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:48:14 -0800

Ronnie Biggs lived most of his life as a free man, and the English government has never been happy about that.

Today, Biggs is “fast deteriorating” with the MRSA superbug in the British hospital near the prison that was suppose to release him last Friday.

However, he remains in custody “riddled with MRSA” after Justice Minister Jack Straw vetoed parole for the 79-year old Biggs.

MRSA victim Ronnie Biggs, you see, was part of the gang that pulled off the Great Train robbery of 1963. In today’s terms, the Great Train robbery was like taking $56 million.

Most of the gang were captured, put on trial, and locked up in prison. But Biggs escaped in just 15 months. He fled to France, Australia, and finally Brazil. Living in Rio de Janeiro, Biggs was outside the extradition power of British authorities.

At 71, Biggs went home on his own because he wanted to “walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter.” In poor health after three strokes, he knew he would be arrested upon return and he was.

He is now being treated for pneumonia and fractures of the hip, pelvis and spine at a hospital near his prison in Norwich.

'The pneumonia is extremely strong in his body at the moment,' said son Michael Biggs.

He also said his father was 'extremely disappointed' to be denied his freedom by justice secretary Jack Straw. “I would urge Mr Straw to come down to the hospital and see him. He cannot read or write. He cannot eat or drink.”

Straw went against a parole board recommendation to release Biggs as he said he had shown no remorse for his crimes.

Biggs is looking into the possibility of overturning the decision via a judicial review of his father's case.

To be free again, Ronnie Biggs will have to be free of MRSA first.

Matthew Davis Did Not Survive; But His Case Is Shedding Light On MRSA In Hospitals

MRSA Lawyer — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:04:03 -0800

A “World MRSA Day” is being pushed by a Chicago-based nonprofit known as the MRSA Survivors Network.

"As governments and world agencies continue to put their focus on swine flu and prepare to spend billions of dollars on it as they did with Avian flu; the true epidemic/pandemic, MRSA continues to be virtually ignored", says Jeanine Thomas, president of MRSA Survivors Network and the National Spokesperson for MRSA.

"It is unconscionable what has been allowed to happen and MRSA has been swept under the carpet in healthcare facilities for decades and the purpose of World MRSA Day is to raise awareness."

Her comments were included in a longer article that can be found in Medical News Today.

3M, Tec Labs, Cepheid, and Pfizer are among the U.S. health care companies that have signed on to the “World MRSA Day” campaign. The Chicago group is focusing on the U.S. and U.K. Some preliminary events are planned for October.

Meanwhile, the swine flu death earlier this month of 13-year old Matthew Davis of Buffalo, NY is coming in for attention because of the role methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) played in his death. The boy was a healthy teenager before becoming “co-infected” with both swine flu and MRSA.

The Buffalo News has the story.

Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) --It's What's For Dinner!

MRSA Lawyer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:52:27 -0800

People who work closely with MRSA-infected animals are at risk of catching the bacteria, meaning farmers, veterinarians and their families are the most threatened.

And, MRSA is able to infect food but eating or handling produce carrying the superbug does NOT present an increased health hazard to humans.

Those are the among the findings of a study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).

"While food may be contaminated by MRSA there is currently no evidence that eating or handling contaminated food can lead to an increased health risk for humans," an EFSA statement said.

The organizations conducting the study said the focus on control of the superbug should be at the farm level. There's more in the Food Production Daily.

Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) --It's What's For Dinner!

MRSA Lawyer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:52:27 -0800

People who work closely with MRSA-infected animals are at risk of catching the bacteria, meaning farmers, veterinarians and their families are the most threatened.

And, MRSA is able to infect food but eating or handling produce carrying the superbug does NOT present an increased health hazard to humans.

Those are the among the findings of a study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).

"While food may be contaminated by MRSA there is currently no evidence that eating or handling contaminated food can lead to an increased health risk for humans," an EFSA statement said.

The organizations conducting the study said the focus on control of the superbug should be at the farm level. There's more in the Food Production Daily.

MRSA Fears Could Block Pennsylvania's Transfer of State Inmates To Centre County Correctional Facility

MRSA Lawyer — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:24:52 -0800

A decision by the Centre County Board of Commissioners to begin housing State of Pennsylvania prisoners in the local jail has bought out concerns that the newly arriving inmates could spread diseases like hepatitis C and MRSA or Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.

Commissioner Steve Dershem supported the deal to take up to 25 state prisoners a day at $55 per day because the providing the service to the state could end up putting $250,000 a year into the county's coffers. He warned about the difficult economic times facing Centre County.

Commission Chairman Jon Eich, however, fought back after being on the losing end of an initial vote to take the state inmates. And, one of the issues he brought up was the likelihood of spreading disease.

In addition to expressing concerns over drugs and gangs from outside criminals establishing contacts with local residents doing time at the jail, Eich said:

“The fourth point which I neglected to mention, but is just as important, are illnesses that inmates from outside Centre County bring with them, particularly, hepatitis C and MRSA (staph),” he said. “I am concerned that our staff and inmates will be exposed to additional inmates carrying these illnesses — and that the county would end up paying for the treatment.”

Centre County has run its own prison since 1800. The latest version was built over 24 "sink holes" in 2005 and today holds 259 inmates wearing the orange jumpsuits of the "Centre County Correctional Facility." It is located at Bellefonte, PA, with a state prison nearby.

More about the dispute over MTSA fears can be found in the Centre Daily.

MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - The risk to our food supply and to us.

MRSA Lawyer — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:13:24 -0800

“Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health,” , is an Op-ed by Nicholas D. Kristof. It was published in The

New York Times on March 11, 2009.

His Op-ed is the story of “[t]he late Tom Anderson, the family doctor in this little farm town in northwestern Indiana,” who uncovered in his town a truth that is becoming more and more apparent, or should be – “The larger question is whether we as a nation have moved to a model of agriculture that produces cheap bacon but risks the health of all of us. And the evidence, while far from conclusive, is growing that the answer is yes.”

Some 50 people in Dr. Anderson’s town contracted MRSA , or “’pimples from hell,’ he called them — and quickly became lesions as big as saucers, fiery red and agonizing to touch. They could be anywhere, but were most common on the face, armpits, knees and buttocks. Dr. Anderson took cultures and sent them off to a lab, which reported that they were MRSA, or staph infections that are resistant to antibiotics.” And, then Dr. Anderson died.

Andrew Schneider, Senior Correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer post on his "Secret Ingredients" blog: that Tara Smith, an assistant professor at the University of Iowa Department of Epidemiology, and her graduate researchers found MRSA in more than 70 percent of the pigs they tested on farms in Iowa and Illinois. In what is apparently the first testing of swine for MRSA in the U.S., Smith and her team swabbed the noses of 209 pigs on 10 farms. They also found the bacteria among livestock workers employed by those hog operations. The research tested 20 workers at the Iowa swine farms and found that 45 percent carried the same MRSA bacteria as the pigs.

As they say in my business – “the evidence is mounting” - what are we going to do about it?

Cattlenetwork Inteview - MRSA on the horizon

MRSA Lawyer — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:45:44 -0800

Chuck Jolley of Cattlenetwork interviewed Bill Marler on February 3, 2009. To quote Mr. Jolley, the interview had two main themes (1) What the hell is going on? And (2) What will be the effects on the cattle industry? MRSA comments are in bold.

Q. Bill, despite changes in federal rules and regs and your decade-and-a-half of court room work, food borne illnesses still seem to be piling up year-after-year. Let’s look at the Salmonella illnesses that began appearing half a year ago. It took five months to link it to King Nut peanut butter’s Blakely, GA plant. Why did it take so long and what did it cost in deaths and illnesses?

A. The PCA facility was in bad shape. They were shipping product for about 2 years that they knew was bad. So far, 120 people have been hospitalized and 8 have died. According to published reports, over 540 have been sickened in 43 states. We know our surveillance isn’t perfect, though. For every reported case, maybe 40 are missed so we could be looking at many more hospitalizations and deaths and over 20,000 illnesses.

It was an epidemic, but we figured it out only after it had just about run its course. After the tomato, spinach and ground beef problems, we need to put more effort into catching these things sooner rather than later and throwing a whole industry under the bus.

Q. Peanut butter spiked with Salmonella is the hottest news item these days but I’ve read reports of trace amounts of mercury found in High Fructose Corn Syrup, antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria in CAFO pigs and you’ve been quoted as saying we’re losing the fight against E. coli – a contaminant found in meat and produce. With all of the federal, state and local organizations charged with overseeing the safety of our food, why are we unable to move the dial on this thing?

A. We have a real failure in our ability to survey bacterial and other food borne illnesses. The problem is each state has its own skill sets at finding and tracking these outbreaks. Some states are very good, some states are abysmal. We have too many organizations, too, that don’t communicate well with each other.

Q. With a new administration in place and new hands like Tom Vilsack on deck at the USDA, do you see a chance for improvements – a new emphasis on food safety - at the federal level?

A. I sent an open letter to the FSIS with some suggestions. It’s posted on my blog (http://www.marlerblog.com/). In it, I said:
• ‘Improve surveillance of bacterial and viral diseases. First responders - ER physicians and local doctors - need to be encouraged to test for pathogens and report findings directly to local and state health departments and the CDC promptly.’
• ‘These same governmental departments, whether local, state or federal, need to learn to “play well together.” Turf battles need to take a back seat to stopping an outbreak and tracking it to its source.’
• ‘Require real training and certification of food handlers at restaurants and grocery stores. There also should be incentives for ill employees not to come to work when ill. We should impose fines and penalties on employers who do not cooperate.’
• ‘Stiffen license requirements for large farm, retail and wholesale food outlets, so that nobody gets a license until they and their employees have shown they understand the hazards and how to avoid them.’
• ‘Increase food inspections. While domestic production has continued to be a problem, imports pose an increasing risk, especially if terrorists were to get into the act. Points of export and entry are a logical place to step up monitoring.’
• ‘Reorganize federal, state and local food safety agencies to increase cooperation and reduce wasteful overlap and conflicts. Reform federal, state and local agencies to make them more proactive, and less reactive.’
• ‘There are too few legal consequences for sickening or killing customers by selling contaminated food. We should impose stiff fines, and even prison sentences for violators, and even stiffer penalties for repeat violators.’
• ‘We need to use our technology to make food more traceable so that when an outbreak occurs authorities can quickly identify the source and limit the spread of the contamination and stop the disruption to the economy.’
• ‘Promote university research to develop better technologies to make food safe and for testing foods for contamination. Provide tax breaks for companies that push food safety interventions and employee training. Greatly expand irradiation of raw hamburger and other high-risk products.’
• ‘Improve consumer understanding of the risks of food-borne illness.’

Q. Let’s talk about existing laws and regulations. Peanut Corporation of America was not required to inform the FDA or state food-safety agencies that its products had tested positive for Salmonella. They merely went ‘lab shopping,’ had the product re-checked, then placed it into commerce. A Georgia state dismissed the practice when he said, "It's just basically a loophole that has been there." How many loopholes are out there and why do they exist?

A. A few companies are less concerned about food safety – more concerned about their profit margins. They crank up line speeds and reduce labor. Everyone suffers. The problem is a lack of organization and turf battles among competing inspection systems at the federal, state and local levels.

Q. Focus on the cattle and beef industries now. What do you see as our biggest challenges in 2009 and what can we do to meet those challenges?

A. The past 15 years will show you the next 15. Emerging pathogens, new pathogens, antibiotic resistant strains – think MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It’s an infection caused by a strain of bacteria that is highly resistant to treatment. They’re coming at us hard. You’ll be challenged by pathogens that didn’t exist then as they do now.

You’ll need to do everything you can to minimize end-product contamination and that will include how you raise animals. Are CAFO’s the right way, for instance? You’re faced with feeding a growing world population but you’ll have to ask if the efficiencies of CAFO’s are worth it. How will a production change affect the price and the availability of food?

There is a lack of cooperative spirit among the regulators, companies and buyers and sellers. It has to be fixed. Everyone in the food chain, every facility, needs to cooperate on science-based pathogen testing. It should be mandatory and the results must be transparent.

It’s clear that the vast majority of businesses are well-run, well-maintained and dedicated to putting out the high quality product that consumers have a right to expect. We really have to take a hard look at how plants are inspected, though. We’re using to much of the ‘poke and sniff’ techniques of the early 20th century to find pathogens that didn’t exist until a few years ago.