Deadlier Than AIDS?

from the October 16, 2007 eNews issue

Health experts warn that a drug-resistant "superbug" has the potential to kill more Americans that AIDS. Each year more than 90,000 Americans are infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The potentially deadly staph infection is believed to be responsible for the death of a 17-year-old high school student in Virginia which prompted officials to shut down 21 schools.

MRSA is the subject of a new report published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently in hospitals and healthcare facilities. However staph infections are becoming more and more common outside of the hospital setting. What's more, not only are Staph infections more widespread, they are also more resistant to antibiotics. According to the study, which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, "infections with significant antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, the types formerly seen only in hospitals, now have onset in the community - old diseases have learned new tricks."

Schools across the country are reporting an increase in outbreaks of staph infections, particularly among athletes. MRSA bacteria can live on common surfaces such as tables or doorknobs for days or weeks and can be transmitted when someone touches an infected surface. Health officials believe many of the infections are being spread in gyms and locker rooms. In Maryland, more than two dozen staph infections have been reported by four high schools over the past three weeks. Health officials in other parts of the country (including North Carolina, Ohio, New York, New Hampshire, and Florida) have also noted an increase in staph infections.

Old Diseases Learn New Tricks

The World Health Organization recently released its annual report, which states that infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before. According to the WHO, new diseases are emerging at the "historically unprecedented" rate of one per year. Since the 1970s, 39 new diseases have developed, such as SARS, Ebola, and the Marburg virus. Furthermore, in the last five years alone, the WHO has identified more than 1,100 epidemics including cholera, polio and bird flu. The WHO anticipates that more new diseases will emerge in the near future, the report states that "It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like AIDS, another Ebola, or another SARS."

Thomson Prentice, editor of the WHO report, says that modern airline travel has exacerbated the spread of infectious diseases: "With something like two billion passengers traveling last year, that works out at something like three million people every day flying from one city or one country or one continent to another. The potential, I think, is obvious for someone with an infectious disease unwittingly perhaps carrying it from one part of the world to another."

With the advent of antibiotics more than 50 years ago, scientists predicted the end of death and suffering from infectious diseases. During the past 30 years, however, we have witnessed the reemergence and geographical spread of well-known diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera, often in more virulent and drug-resistant forms. Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, and the third leading cause of death in the United States. Diseases thought to be obsolete have once again become a global threat, and in recent years new pathogens have emerged, some of which carry antibiotic-resistant genes or mutations enabling them to move across different species.