Superbugs: Drug Resistant But Not Herb Resistant

Superbugs: Drug Resistant But Not Herb Resistant

(NewsTarget) Superbug is becoming a household term and unfortunately, a household occurrence. The most recent headliner is the methicillin and penicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Thought of mostly as a hospital acquired infection, its occurrence is showing up in schools, gyms, and daycare centers (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/10/16/mrsa.cdc.ap/index.html?iref=n...). 21 schools in Bedford, Virginia have closed to undergo cleaning after a high school senior died (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/10/16/staph.death.ap/index.html) October 15th of the infection.

It is often carried by healthy individuals without symptoms. In a mild case, MRSA affects the skin, but it can become invasive and potentially deadly when it penetrates the body usually through a break in the skin, like a cut, scrape, or wound. It infects more than 90,000 Americans a year (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/10/16/mrsa.cdc.ap/index.html?iref=n...), and due to a resistance to antibiotics, MRSA has become hard to treat by the medical community.

It is generally accepted that MRSA has become immune to many antibiotics due to the overuse. Bacteria are smart and very good at survival. They share knowledge about antibiotics, and can even acquire the necessary encoding for resistance by scavenging the remnants of dead bacteria killed by the antibiotic (http://health.howstuffworks.com/question561.html).

Alternative treatments for bacterial infections are widely available, but they have not been publicized in the recent media frenzy.

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