Researchers are warning that a new, highly drug-resistant strain of MRSA bacteria is spreading among gay men in San Francisco and Boston. The authors of the new study, which is based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics in the two cities and from nine medical centers in San Francisco, said the new strain "has the potential for rapid, nationwide dissemination" among gay men.
The new strain of MRSA bacteria - for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - appears to spread most easily through anal intercourse and also via casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces.
Gay men in San Francisco were found to be 13 times more likely than the city's general population to be infected. In the city's heavily gay Castro district, one person in 588 was found to be infected with the new strain, compared to one in 3,800 for the city overall.
MRSA infections killed nearly 19,000 people in 2005, according to CDC. Once mainly found in hospitals, the bacteria have been increasingly diagnosed in otherwise healthy people who acquired the infection outside of medical settings. Among the men in the current study, the bacteria caused abscesses on the buttocks and genitals. MRSA is sometimes known as the "flesh-eating" bacteria, due to its ability to cause necrotizing fasciitis.
The new strain, multidrug-resistant MRSA USA300, is closely related to earlier ones but is much more difficult to treat, as it is not resistant just to methicillin. "This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline, and mupirocin," said Dr. Henry F. Chambers, an author of the study.
Washing with soap and water, especially after sex, may be the most effective way to prevent infection, the researchers suggested.
The full report, "Emergence of Multidrug-Resistant, Community-Associated, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Clone USA300 in Men Who Have Sex with Men," is now available online and will be published in the Feb. 19 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine (2008;148(4)).
01/15/08
UNITED STATES: New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men
Source: New York Times:: Lawrence K. Altman; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention