MRSA, (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) has rapidly become the bacteria of the decade primarily because MRSA infections now respond only to very advanced antibiotics that were never meant to be a first-line defense. A recent study by researchers explain the rate of MRSA infections recorded at U.S. academic hospitals doubled in the five years between 2003 and 2008, and continues to increase. Since drugs used to treat MRSA usually have to be delivered intravenously it means spending several nights in the hospital, which adds to healthcare cost.
With new antibiotics being approved at slower and slower rates, the battle against MRSA has many doctors worrying about creating a superbug they can’t kill at all. Now, new data suggest that the MRSA problem may be even worse than we thought. In the last three years, more MRSA-infected people have checked into the hospital than either HIV-positive or influenza-afflicted patients, combined.