From Pigs to People: The Emergence of a New Superbug

摘要

The first infection was puzzling, almost inexplicable. In July 2004, Andreas Voss of Rad-boud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands admitted a 6-month-old girl for surgery to repair a congenital heart defect. Because an infection with the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus would pose a grave risk following heart surgery, Voss and his colleagues screened the baby girl for the microbe. They found not just S. aureus but also a menacing drug-resistant form known as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA).