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Subject: New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men
From: "javed abbas"
Date: Tue, January 15, 2008 7:36 pm
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
January 15, 2008
A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the flesh-eating MRSA bacteria is
being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers
reported on Monday.
In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine,
the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but
also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated
surfaces.
The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to
identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy,
the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider
threat.
The new strain seems to have spread rapidly in gay populations in San
Francisco and Boston, the researchers wrote, and has the potential for
rapid, nationwide dissemination among gay men.
The study was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics
in San Francisco and Boston and nine medical centers in San Francisco.
The Castro district in San Francisco has the highest number of gay
residents in the country, according to the University of California, San
Francisco. One in 588 residents is infected with the new
multidrug-resistant MRSA strain, the study found. That compares with 1 in
3,800 people in San Francisco, according to statistical analyses based on
ZIP codes.
A separate part of the study found that gay men in San Francisco were
about 13 times more likely to be infected than other people in the city.
The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water
might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission,
particularly after sexual activities.
MRSA, for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was once spread
chiefly in hospitals. But in recent years, a number of healthy people have
acquired it outside hospitals.
Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States from MRSA infections in
2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
The infection can cause unusually severe problems, including abscesses and
skin ulcers. The bacteria can invade through the skin to produce
necrotizing fasciitis, giving them the popular name of flesh-eating
bacteria. They can also cause pneumonia, damage the heart and produce
widespread infection through the blood.
Among gay men in the study, MRSA was spread by skin contact, causing
abscesses and infection in the buttocks and genital area.
The new strain is closely related to earlier ones. Both are known as MRSA
USA300.
The strain is much more difficult to treat because it is resistant not
just to methicillin, but also many more of the antibiotics used to treat
the earlier strains, said Dr. Henry F. Chambers, an author of the new
study.
The new strain contains a plasmid called pUSA03.
This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs,
clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin, Dr. Chambers said in a telephone
interview.
Of the alternatives recommended by the C.D.C. and the Infectious Diseases
Society of America, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), clindamycin
and a tetracycline, this strain is resistant to two of those three, he
added. In addition, the new strain is resistant to mupirocin, which has
been advocated for eradicating the strain from carriers.
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With Regards
javed abbas
Knowledge and Resource Centre
Naz Foundation International
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