MRSA

(CIDRAP News) – Clostridium difficile, rapidly gaining as a source of hospital-acquired infections, is sickening from 6 to 20 times more patients than previously thought, according to a survey released today by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

(CIDRAP News) – The number of children who have died from a combination of influenza infection and bacterial pneumonia—in many cases due to the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)—has risen sharply over the past few years, federal epidemiologists say in a new report that urges flu shots as a preventative.

– ATLANTA (CIDRAP News) – Serious microbial threats, including drug-resistant influenza and foodborne pathogens, remain stubbornly persistent even as unpredictable new threats are emerging, researchers said this week at the leading international conference on new and resurgent infectious diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that most circulating influenza B viruses tested so far this season don't match this year's vaccine, signaling that two of the three vaccine components are off-target.

(CIDRAP News) – As seasonal influenza makes its annual march across the country, surveillance data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that 23% of the viruses that have been identified belong to a strain that is not included in this season's vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Perth, Australia, last week advised parents to seek medical care quickly for young children with respiratory symptoms, after three children under age 5 died of pneumonia as a complication of "mild" influenza A infections.