Ready Nutrition  April 24 2014

An antibiotic-resistant superbug that has long been a problem in hospitals and other health care settings has found a new reservoir: U.S. homes.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a bacteria that is responsible for many hard-to-treat infections in different parts of the body. Its resistance to common antibiotics like penicillin and amoxicillin has earned MRSA a place in the “superbug” category.

In hospitals and other medical facilities, MRSA can cause life-threatening infections in the bloodstream, urinary tract, lungs, and surgical sites.

Outside of medical settings, MRSA usually manifests itself in the form of skin infections spread by physical contact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Anyone can get MRSA through direct contact with an infected wound or by sharing personal items, such as towels or razors, that have touched infected skin. MRSA infection risk can be increased when a person is in certain activities or places that involve crowding, skin-to-skin contact, and shared equipment or supplies. This might include athletes, daycare and school students, military personnel in barracks, and people who recently received inpatient medical care.

The CDC estimates that approximately 2% of people (2 out of every 100) carries MRSA, but normally they don’t show any sign of infection.

Now, a new study shows that homes can be “major reservoirs” for the bacteria:

“What our findings show is it’s also endemic in households,” said lead researcher Dr. Anne-Catrin Uhlemann, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

HealthDay reported on the findings:

The new results, published April 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are based on 161 New York City residents who contracted MRSA infections between 2009 and 2011.

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