scientists decode genes for drug resistant staph

[Guest guest]

full story at www.healthday.com/view.cfm?

id=531271

researchers have succeeded in deciphering the genetic make-up

of a major strain of drug-resistant, potentially deadly staph

bacteria in the United States.Genes responsible for the virulence of

community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

in this country appear to be taken from another, less toxic,

bacterium. " It has, in effect, borrowed genetic characteristics from

an otherwise rather benign organism and, in so doing, acquired an

extra degree of lethality, " explained Dr. Pascal Imperato,

chairman of the department of preventive medicine and community

health and director of the master of public health program at the

State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York

City.Imperato was not involved in the study, which appears in the

Feb. 29 online issue of The Lancet.The newly mapped genes could be

used as markers to track the spread of this particular strain in both

hospital and community settings, and to investigate more effective

therapies to fight it. aureus can be found on the skin or in the nose

of about 30 percent to 40 percent of the U.S. population, experts

say. Most of the organisms are benign, but occasionally the bacteria

can cause infections, especially skin infections, of varying degrees

of severity. They can also trigger life-threatening infections such

as toxic shock

syndrome...