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National 'Superbug' Death Rate Hits 18,650

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By KEVIN SACK, The New York Times

Published: October 17, 2007

ATLANTA - Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States in 2005 after being infected with virulent drug-resistant bacteria that have spread rampantly through hospitals and nursing homes, according to the most thorough study of the disease's prevalence ever conducted.

The government study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that such infections may be twice as common as previously thought, according to study author R. Monina Klevens.

If the mortality estimates are correct, the number of deaths associated with the germ, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, would exceed those attributed to HIV-AIDS, Parkinson's disease, emphysema or homicide each year.

By extrapolating data collected in nine locations, the researchers estimated that 94,360 patients developed an invasive infection in 2005 and that nearly one of every five, or 18,650 of them, died.

The authors, who work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calculated the prevalence of the disease as 32 cases per 100,000 people.

'This is the first study that's been able to capture the data in a comprehensive fashion,' said Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. 'This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried.'

Other researchers noted that the estimate includes only the most serious infections caused by the bug.

'It's really just the tip of the iceberg,' said Elizabeth Bancroft, a medical epidemiologist at the Los Angeles Department of Public Health who wrote an editorial accompanying the new research. 'It is astounding.'

The study also concluded that 85 percent of invasive MRSA infections are associated with health care treatment.

'This confirms in a very rigorous way that this is a huge health problem,' said John A. Jernigan, the deputy chief of prevention and response in the CDC's division of health care quality promotion.

Student's Death Causes Closing

On Monday, a Virginia high school senior, Ashton Bonds, 17, died of MRSA, prompting officials to shut down 21 Bedford County schools for cleaning to prevent further infections. The infection had spread to Bonds' kidneys, liver, lungs and the muscle around his heart.

The MRSA estimate is being published with second report that a strain of another bacterium, which causes ear infections in children, has become impervious to every approved antibiotic for youngsters.

'Taken together, what these two papers show is that we're increasingly facing antibiotic resistant forms of these very common organisms,' Bancroft said.

In the second paper, researchers at University of Rochester documented the emergence of an antibiotic-resistant strain of another bacterium known as Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes common ear infections. Although all 11 children identified in the Rochester area with the microbe so far were eventually successfully treated, five required an antibiotic approved only for adults and one child was left with permanent hearing loss.

New Antibiotics Needed

The reports underscore the need to develop new antibiotics and curb the unnecessary use of those already available, experts said.

The bacteria don't respond to penicillin-related antibiotics once commonly used to treat them, partly because of overuse. They can be treated with other drugs but health officials worry that their overuse could cause the germ to become resistant to those, too.

MRSA, which was first isolated in the United States in 1968, causes 10 percent to 20 percent of all infections acquired in health care settings, according to the CDC.

The study found higher prevalence rates and death rates for the elderly, African-Americans and men.

Information from The Washington Post and The Associated Press was used in this report.

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