Deadly Flu-Bacteria Combo

Researchers Track MRSA Trends

POSTED: 8:47 am EDT April 25, 2008

BOSTON -- Massachusetts state health officials are concerned about a deadly combination of influenza and bacteria that has been found in several cases where children have died from the flu.They are worried about the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection, also called MRSA, which is very difficult to treat. Two children who died from flu in the state were found to have both the flu and MRSA, and officials are worried that there may be a link.MRSA was formerly found mostly in hospitals, but now is being found in healthy children and adults who carry the germ in their noses and throats. They don't know it, and there's no obvious harm, but doctors believe that people who are co-infected -- meaning they have both flu and MRSA -- are more likely to die.They're calling it "fluMRSA" and of the 74 children who died of flu nationwide in 2006 and 2007, 22 of them also had staph infection and most of those were MRSA cases. In Massachusetts, of the four children who died, two had MRSA.At the state health department lab, researchers are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to activate a monitoring network so they can track those with fluMRSA to detect any kind of trends.

Docs Worry About Deadly Flu-Bacteria Combo - Health News Story - WKMG Orlando