M.R.S.A. Hospitalizations Skyrocket for Kids

For parents the prospect of their child contracting MRSA, the increasingly drug resistant staph infection is terrifying. A new study reveals that the incidence of children presenting with MRSA in hospital settings has increased ten times between 1998 and 2008.http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_data.html

Reportedly more than 21 cases per 1000 hospital admissions is being reported, up from 2 cases per 1000 admissions in 1998.

Methicillin Resistant Staph was primarily contracted in clinical settings such as hospitals and nursing homes but is now evidently primarily acquired in community-based settings.

The study published in the journal Pediatrics followed yound patients in 25 children's hospitals and found that 30,000 children were in the hospital for MRSA infections, 374 of whom died.

Efforts to arrest the progress of MRSA are ongoing as the Staph infection finds the ability to mutate and resist formerly effective drugs.