Yet scientists say the MRSA problem is no worse now than it was last week, or even last year.
People are on high alert to the threat of MRSA after the infection killed a Virginia high school student Monday and news outlets reported a rise in a new strain of the bacteria two days later.
The disease usually infects through a skin lesion and is only rarely fatal. Doctors say the public may be misled by the term antibiotic resistant. MRSA is a staph bacterium that evolved a resistance to penicillin, its synthetic counterpart methicillin, and several related antibiotics. But it can be cured with many other antibiotics, so most cases clear up with the right treatment.
"It's an inappropriate panic," said Susan Coffin, director of infection prevention and control at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "I'm getting letters from people saying their children are told not to return to school" after an infection.
Scientists say MRSA represents a long-term problem rather than an immediate threat.
In recent years, a number of isolated cases and outbreaks have cropped up among professional football teams and high school athletes, said Neil Fishman, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.
Usually the infection is transmitted from skin-to-skin contact, abrasions, and possibly the sharing of razors, towels and soap. The infections typically fall under the radar, the students get treatment, and nobody worries.
That all changed this week.
On the heels of the Virginia death, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report that said a relatively new strain of MRSA accounted for about 14 percent of the more dangerous invasive cases.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that annual MRSA deaths from all strains now outnumber deaths from AIDS.
