Just when you started sleeping again as testing for the West Nile virus vaccine is underway and terrorism has stolen the front page away from the Avian flu, and of course, all the pedophiles running around, protected by the ACLU, you have yet another worry to add to your list.

Apparently, a bug bite or a fall on the sidewalk can no longer be brushed off, sprayed with Bactine, given a few kisses and accompanied with “suck it up” talk in effort to stick the trivial incidence in the past. No. Couldn’t be that easy. Now we have to worry about the Superbug. It’s deadly. As a result of seemingly innocuous sore, a child could suffer dire consequences. A staph infection that is immune to antibiotics and eats away at the body. The number of infections has nearly tripled over the last few years and children are amongst the most vulnerable victims.

I even saw a poor little baby who was overcome with this disease and had to have the bacteria scraped away from his heart, on CNN last night:

http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/health/2006/08/16/cohen.kids.and.staph.infections.cnn

From cnn.com

(AP) — A once-rare drug-resistant germ now appears to cause more than half of all skin infections treated in U.S. emergency rooms, say researchers who documented the superbug’s startling spread in the general population.

Many victims mistakenly thought they just had spider bites that wouldn’t heal, not drug-resistant staph bacteria. Only a decade ago, these germs were hardly ever seen outside of hospitals and nursing homes.

Doctors also were caught off-guard — most of them unwittingly prescribed medicines that do not work against the bacteria.

“It is time for physicians to realize just how prevalent this is,” said Dr. Gregory Moran of Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, who led the study.

Another author, Dr. Rachel Gorwitz of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said: “I think no one was aware of the extent of the problem.”

Skin infections can be life-threatening if bacteria get into the bloodstream. Drug-resistant strains can also cause a vicious type of pneumonia and even “flesh-eating” wounds.

The CDC paid for the study, published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine. Several authors have consulted for companies that make antibiotics.

Researchers analyzed all skin infections among adults who went to hospital emergency rooms in 11 U.S. cities in August 2004. Of the 422 cases, 249, or 59 percent, were caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Such bacteria are impervious to the penicillin family of drugs long used for treatment.

The proportion of infections due to MRSA ranged from 15 percent to as high as 74 percent in some hospitals.

“This completely matches what our experience at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital has been,” said Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious-disease specialist whose hospital was not included in the study. “Usually what we see is a mom or dad brings their child in with what they describe as a spider bite that’s not getting better or a pimple that’s not getting better,” and it turns out to be MRSA. Read the rest…

Experts do say that there are precautions a parent an take. Don’t ignore bug bites or scrapes or pimples, especially if they don’t seem to be going away. Sometimes draining all the pus and early intervention can be a matter of life and death. Also, hygiene is the most important factor, washing hands and wounds and using antibiotic ointment. Also, tell your older kids not to share toiletries or towels when they’re at the pool or gym.

Hope you’ve had dinner, because here comes the nasty:

[TAGS]methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, staph infection, west nile virus, children[/TAGS]

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