New Strain of MRSA Spreads Among Gay Men: Report

Surpassing hospital boundaries, a new, highly drug-resistant strain of the potentially deadly MRSA bacteria is now spreading among gay men primarily during sexual activity, researchers reported on Monday.

Once confined to hospitalized patients, the bug ‘Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus’, or MRSA, is now beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.

Topping the charts, sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than heterosexuals in others cities, the researchers report.

Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial infection belonging to the Staphylococcaceae family, comprises of 31 species. While most species are completely harmless, and reside normally on the skin and mucous membranes of humans the recently evolving MRSA strains are a major cause of many Staph infections.

“The most recent strain contains a plasmid called pUSA03. The strain is much more difficult to treat because it is resistant not just to methicillin, but also to three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin”, Dr. Henry F. Chambers, an author of the new study explained.

Universally termed as a “Superbug”, MRSA is a communicable infection that often transmits through touch. In the most recent outbreak, the bacteria seemed to be spread through anal intercourse and also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching of contaminated surfaces, the study published in the online edition of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine reports.

Particularly infecting the areas around the buttocks and the genitals, the strain typically causes boils and other skin and soft-tissue infections. Being resistant to a chain of antibiotics it is treatable only by surgical drainage and a picky class of antibiotics.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 19,000 people succumb to Staph infection in the United States annually.

Using antibiotics to treat bacterial infections has become a necessary evil. While they are the quickest form of treatment for such infections, overuse of such antibiotics is dwindling their effectiveness worldwide.