Maryn McKenna

Journalist and Author

Appearing tonight at SciAm.com

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Folks, last summer I told you about the very exciting though disturbing development of ST 398 MRSA — the “untypable” Dutch strain that originated in pigs and spread to humans — being found in pigs in the US for the first time.

But here’s the brand-new second half of that story: It was found in pig handlers as well, on a set of linked farms — a closed production system that takes pigs from birth to just before slaughter — in Iowa and Illinois.

The full study has just been published, in the online Public Library of Science journal PLoS One.

And I have a story describing the research and the background — and the alarming spread of ST 398 in Europe — up tonight at ScientificAmerican.com.

The cite is: Smith, TC, Male, MJ, Harper, AL et al. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strain ST398 Is Present in Midwestern U.S. Swine and Swine Workers. PLoS ONE 4(1): e4258 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004258

UPDATE: Lead author Tara Smith talks about the paper at her own blog, Aetiology. And for good measure, her Science Blogs sibling (AKA “scibling”) Ed Yong discusses the paper at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

“Pig MRSA” in New York City – via the Dominican Republic?

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Folks: Back in October, I broke the news for you of an intriguing poster presentation at the ICAAC meeting. It revealed the discovery of ST 398, the anomalous staph strain found in pigs, pig farmers and health care workers in Europe, in residents of a Dominican-immigrant neighborhood in northern Manhattan, and also in the Dominican Republic.

Because there is so much traffic back and forth between those neighborhoods, the authors theorized that people are providing an “air bridge” for the bacterium — though they were unable to say whether the bug is moving from the Dominican Republic to the United States, or vice versa.

I was unable to link to that presentation at the time, because it was a meeting poster – yes, literally a poster, the authors stand by it to discuss it with anyone who wanders by. However, now it has been published as a paper, in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases; and because it is a CDC journal, the full text is available free online here.

Just to underline, despite my headline above, the strain found in NYC was not MRSA: It actually is MSSA, drug-sensitive staph. The ST 398 found in Europe, Canada and the American Midwest is MRSA. The authors hypothesize that the NYC strain is at risk of becoming MRSA also.

To see the multiple posts in this blog about MRSA ST 398 and other strains in the food chain, food animals, and pets, go to the labels under the time stamp on this post, and click “animals” or “food.”

The cite for the paper is: Bhat M, Dumortier C, Taylor B, Miller M, Vasquez G, Yunen J, et al. Staphylococcus aureus ST398, New York City and Dominican Republic. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Feb; [Epub ahead of print]

News round-up

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I’m deep into writing again and therefore slipping on posting; apologies to regular readers! But here are some items of importance from the past week:

  • Wednesday (Aug. 20) marked the first anniversary of Illinois‘ signing and immediately enacting the MRSA Screening & Reporting Act, the first state law to mandate that hospitals screen all ICU and other high-risk patients for MRSA colonization and to isolate and treat them until they are clear. This law would never have been passed without the extraordinary advocacy of MRSA survivor Jeanine Thomas, founder of the MRSA Survivors Network (site here and in the blogroll).
  • Also as of Wednesday, California came within one step of passing its own MRSA laws, SB 1058 and SB 158. They await the signature of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — but with California’s budget in a $15.2 billion deficit freefall, new legislation there may be held hostage until a budget deal is agreed. Important addition: SB 1058 is also called “Nile’s Law,” after Nile Calvin Moss, who died of MRSA in April 2006. His parents Carole and Ty have pushed relentlessly for a MRSA law in his memory.
  • Plus, a great find thanks to Carole Moss: The Washington State Department of Health has put together an excellent pamphlet, Living with MRSA, that explains MRSA infection, colonization, decolonization and infection-control care at home in excellent everyday language.
  • And finally, another blog worth knowing about: GERMblog, written by Dr. Harley Rotbart, professor and vice-chair of pediatrics at University of Colorado School of Medicine and author of Germ Proof Your Kids: The Complete Guide to Protecting (Without Overprotecting) Your Family from Infections. I interviewed Dr. Rotbart recently for a magazine story and his advice was clear, science-based and sensible. His blog is now in the blogroll.