Update on the MRSA Strain Project...

It's been awhile, but I've finally found time to sit down and blog again!

I know you've all been anxious to hear about my research out in California. Well, I've got some interesting news about it, a little good and a little bad.

The good news is, we've discovered a new strain of MRSA prevalent in hospitals in the California area, but it hasn't seemed to spread to other states yet. It's our hope that the spread can be prevented by early intervention, before anyone else is harmed.

Now comes the bad news. This next part is rather disturbing - squeamish readers may want to skip to the bottom of this post.

As it turns out, we're not dealing with your garden-variety MRSA here, as this strain is particularly dangerous and might be resistant to even more antibiotics than before. Some of my readers might remember my MRSA post from last year, when I mentioned that necrosis and gangrene are complications of an untreated staph infection. Unfortunately, it seems that this particular strain is quite nasty in that regard, as in 85% of all infections with this strain, necrosis and tissue death occurs. It seems this particularly vicious strain tends to concentrate in the tissues of the face in about 73% of all cases. In these cases, the necrosis occurs in a predictable pattern - spreading in a ring-like shape outward from both eyes and down the nose in a mask-like pattern. The disease also tends to necrotize areas over any bony parts of the body, meaning that pressure sore wounds are very commonly infected areas of the body as well. Bleeding and pus occur readily around still-living areas of infection as well, while dead tissue turns gangrenous and black before sloughing off. As you can imagine, this causes significant facial damage, and can even result in death. This necrosis occurs rapidly over the course of a few days, with eye, nose, and mouth infections being common due to their proximity with the infected area. Nerve death and bacterial menengitis are deadly but rare complications of infection. The risk of sepsis is particularly high with this strain as well, occurring in about 48% of all cases.

The mortality rate for this strain of MRSA is currently around 85-90% without hospital treatment and occurs within a week after infection; with timely hospital intervention the death rate drops to about 65%. The elderly, the immunocompromised, and infants are at the greatest risk for contracting this deadly staph strain. However, it gets worse - this particular strain, in addition to being resistant to Methicillin and other drugs like it, is resistant to cephalosporins and tetracyclines, two other common types of antibiotics, making this one bad, bad bacterium that is difficult to treat effectively.

Due to the predictable pattern of this strain's spread and its disastrous effects, I have dubbed this strain the "Masque" serotype of MRSA, and I plan to bring samples of the bacterium with me to test later. There are other options for antibiotics that have not yet been tested, and my superiors are quite interested in studying this fascinating and deadly little "superbug". I will keep my readers posted on any more developments with the project. In the meantime, I highly suggest my Californian readers take extra precautions if they may be exposed to Staph bacteria, particularly if they work with children or in health care.