Staph grows stronger.
Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus cost the United States an estimated $24-36 billion each year. Infections from methicillin-resistant S. aureus The aureus (pl. aurei) was a gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarii. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus. (MRSA MRSA Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. See MARSA. ) are linked to higher mortality rates than those caused by methicillin-susceptible strains, and some MRSA strains are becoming resistant to physicians' treatment of choice, vancomycin. Researchers reported in the November 2002 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology Applied and Environmental Microbiology is an academic journal published by the American Society for Microbiology. The title is commonly abbreviated AEM and the ISSN is 0099-2240 for the print version, and 1098-5336 for the electronic version. finding mutant MRSA strains with elevated resistance both to pine oil cleaners (widely used as disinfectants in countries around the world) and to vancomycin and oxacillin oxacillin /ox·a·cil·lin/ (ok?sah-sil´in) a semisynthetic penicillinase-resistant penicillin used as the sodium salt in infections due to penicillin-resistant, gram-positive organisms. . Further tests suggest that the same genetic mutation in cell wall structure and physiology may be responsible for both types of resistance.
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