Drug Resistant MRSA has Increased by 90% Over the Past Decade

Featured TNM Health Update

A recent study conducted at the Princeton University has revealed that cases of the drug resistant bacterial infection MRSA have rapidly increased by as much as 90% over the past decade, and are still spreading at an alarming rate outside hospitals.

Researchers, led by Ramanan Laxminarayan, analyzed data on laboratory tests of a countrywide network of 300 microbiology laboratories across the US for the sake of study, and reported that two new strains of MRSA have been recently found circulating in patients, which are completely different from those discovered earlier.

"We found during 1999-2006 that the percentage of S. aureus infections resistant to methicillin increased more than 90 percent, or 10 percent a year, in outpatients admitted to U.S. hospitals. This increase was caused almost entirely by community-acquired MRSA strains, which increased more than 33 percent annually", shared the researchers.

Researchers discovered that a large number of people were now being diagnosed with MRSA, and the strains found in those patients were not replacing their older counterparts, but simply adding to them, thereby making the infection worse and more difficult to combat.

It has been estimated that nearly 20,000 people die every year in the US after contracting MRSA, and the infection's treatment can cost anywhere from $3,000 to over $35,000 per case.