Attention, chocolate lovers: You may not be able to help yourselves. Swiss and British scientists have linked the widespread love of chocolate to a chemical "signature" that may be programmed into our metabolic systems.
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Two million Americans harbor MRSA ''superbug'': CDC
MRSA has emerged as growing problem, causing difficult-to-treat infections not only in hospitals but also now in the general community.
Dr. Matthew J. Kuehnert and colleagues assessed Staph aureus nasal carriage in 9,622 participants in the 2001-2002 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. They found that 32.4 percent were colonized with the bacteria, and 0.8 percent harbored MRSA.
This translates into weighted population estimates of 89.4 million Americans colonized with S. aureus and 2.3 million carriers of MRSA, the team reports in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
"In light of the increasing frequency of community-acquired MRSA infection, new antimicrobials are needed," write the authors of a related editorial.
"Yet, new antimicrobials will remain fingers in the proverbial dike until a more-definitive solution can be found," contend Dr. Clarence Buddy Creech II and colleagues from Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Several major pharmaceutical companies are working on staphylococcal vaccines, they note. "The appropriate components of such a vaccine remain an area of active research, but early successes confirm that the vaccine-based approach is a viable undertaking."
SOURCE: Journal of Infectious Diseases, January 15, 2006.