20 January 2009
Chicago, USA
Researchers say they have found an “Alarming” increase in children’s ear, nose and throat infections in the United States caused by dangerous drug–resistant staph germs.
{jumi usermod/ads/ads.php}{/jumi} Other studies have shown rising numbers of skin infections in adults and children caused by these germs, nicknamed MRSA, but this is the first nationwide report on how common they are in deeper tissue infections in the head and neck, the study authors said. These include certain ear and sinus infections, and abcesses that can form in the tonsils and throat.
The study found a total of 21,009 pediatric head and neck infections caused by staph germs from 2001 through 2006. The percentage caused by hard–to–treat MRSA bacteria more than doubled during that time from almost 12 percent to 28 percent.
“In most parts of the United States, there’s been an alarming rise,” said study author Dr. Steven Sobol, a children’s head and neck specialist at Emory University.
The study appears in January’s Archives of Otolaryngology, released Monday.
It is based on nationally representative information from an electronic database that collects lab results from more than 300 hospitals nationwide.
MRSA, or methicillin–resistant Staphylococcus aureus, can cause dangerous, life–threatening invasive infections and doctors believe inappropriate use of antibiotics has contributed to its rise.
The study didn’t look at the severity of MRSA illness in affected children.
Dr. Robert Daum, a University of Chicago expert in community–acquired MRSA, said the study should serve as an alert to agencies that fund U.S. research “That this is a major public health problem.”
MRSA involvement in adult head and neck infections has been reported although data on prevalence is scarce.
Almost 60 percent of the MRSA infections found in the study were thought to have been contracted outside a hospital setting.
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MRSA infections were once limited mostly to hospitals, nursing homes and other health–care settings but other studies have shown they are increasingly picked up in the community, in otherwise healthy people.
MRSA does not respond to penicillin–based antibiotics and doctors are concerned that it is becoming resistant to others.
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