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Category Archives: PVL

February 2, 2010

Once again, flu and bacterial co-infection

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With the H1N1 pandemic trending down, it may seem that the question of how much bacterial co-infection affects the outcome of flu is less important than it was. But though the pandemic is subsiding — for ever, for this season, or just until a third wave, who can say — researchers are just now getting [...]
Written by Maryn McKenna
Also posted in Hib, MRSA, influenza, pneumonia
May 12, 2009

While taking a flu break, a MRSA round-up

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Constant readers, the H1N1 (Virus Formerly Known as Swine) Flu story remains a bit intense. I’ve missed a few MRSA stories over the past few days, so here is a round-up. First, though, if you’re curious about what the swine flu reaction says about our ability to handle a pandemic, you might take a look at [...]
Written by Maryn McKenna
Also posted in MRSA, animals, community, infection control
March 21, 2009

"Sick as a pig" – from ST398

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Constant readers, I am at the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, where there is a lot of news about MRSA in hospitals. I hope to post on that over the next few days. In the meantime, though, I want to pass on several pieces of news about ST398, the “pig strain” [...]
Written by Maryn McKenna
Also posted in Netherlands, ST 398, Sweden, UK, animals, food, pigs
September 16, 2008

UK grapples with community MRSA

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Regular readers in the US will have noticed that the MRSA situation here is quite different from Europe. In the UK, for instance, hospital MRSA has been an enormous scandal, but community MRSA — both skin and soft-tissue infections, and fatal invasive infections such as necrotizing pneumonia — has been much less of a concern. That [...]
Written by Maryn McKenna
Also posted in Europe, MRSA, UK, USA 300, community, invasive
March 13, 2008

MRSA and cats – an earlier paper

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In journalism, there sometimes arises a situation in which a reporter for a major outlet writes a story that is very similar to one that has already been published by a minor outlet, without crediting the minor outlet. We call it “bigfooting.” It’s not a compliment. The flurry of attention to the new letter in the [...]
Written by Maryn McKenna
Also posted in MRSA, animals, cats, truth squad, veterinary, zoonotic
June 12, 2007

Yes, it is everywhere

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Via the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, a report from a multi-country European team that surveyed CA-MRSA isolates from around the world to determine their ability to produce Panton-Valentine leukocidin, the potent toxin blamed for CA-MRSA’s unique ability to cause eruptions on healthy-appearing skin. Deep-seated infections due to PVL-positive S. aureus can be extremely severe. For example, [...]
Written by Maryn McKenna
Also posted in MRSA, community, control, surveillance