Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Dog bites can transmit MRSA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8109314.stm
This article by the BBC is a pretty interesting view on the spread of MRSA from people to pets and back. One of the worse aspects of dogbites is the bacteria that can cause an infection after the bite (we're looking at you Pasteurella multocida). This is due to the puncture wound penetrating down the deep layers of skin. It has been widely known and reported that MRSA is increasingly encountered in the lab so this should come as no surprise to see that when up to 33% of people in the U.S. are colonized with MRSA when a dog bite breaks the skin and introduces potential pathogens that they could infact cause an infection.

For those of you who don't know the CDC recently revised its MRSA testing algorithm and it can be found here http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/ar/VRSA_testing_algo09v4.pdf . This is an extremely helpful tool for laboratorians in the potential detection of something a little scarier VRSA which is potentially resistant to all drugs availible to treat it. Any thoughts? Is your lab following the alogrithm?

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