NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Bloodstream infections caused by the
MRSA superbug may be on the decline in communities across the
U.S., according to a large study of military personnel. Previous
data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a
drop in infections contracted in healthcare settings. But the
trajectory of community-onset MRSA, short for methicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is less clear. The bug - a
strain of bacteria that can't be killed by certain common
antibiotics - is estimated to have caused severe illness in
nearly 95,000 Americans in 2005 alone, killing more than 18,500
of them. MRSA can attack several part of the body, but
bloodstream infections are usually the most feared. "Those are
very serious infections with a mortality rate of 20 percent,"
said Dr. Michael David, a MRSA expert at the University of
Chicago, who was not involved in the new study. "The fact that
those are going away is very welcome news." Still, he cautioned,
the study might not reflect the overall