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Sep 21, 2005 6:16 pm US/Central
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'Super Bug' Proves Deadly To Children
by Mary Ann Childers
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Reports of a deadly drug-resistant infection has Chicago doctors sounding an alarm.
It's believed to be responsible already for the deaths of three Chicago children. It's a so-called "super bug," because it's drug resistant.
It's called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. It's usually found in hospitals, but all three children who died caught it outside in the community.
The deaths, reported in Thursday's "New England Journal of Medicine," involved three toddlers who died between 2000 and 2004. All were hospitalized with breathing problems, but died when the staph germ caused a toxic shock syndrome-like illness.
Doctors believe the children inhaled the germ.
Dr. Robert Daum at the University of Chicago co-authored the study and says it's not known how the staph germ got into the community.
But infectious disease specialists say a growing number of otherwise healthy people have acquired these infections outside of hospitals.
In Corpus Christi, Texas, for example, doctors have seen the staph illnesses jump from 10 cases a year in the 1990's to 400 in 2003.
The study authors are calling on all doctors to be on the lookout for shock-like cases caused by MRSA.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)