Doctors allay MRSA fears Infection in healthy people RARE, they reassure the public. Sunday, October 28, 2007 • By Trish G. Graber • The Express-Times It's struck a high school football player in southern New Jersey, a student at Centenary College and at least a dozen other students in the state. Near-daily reports of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA -- as well as automated telephone calls and letters sent home from schools informing them of a local case -- has put parents in New Jersey on edge. Doctors are hoping to allay their fears. "The term 'superbug,' I think it's an exaggerated term," said Dr. Kendell Sprott, acting chair of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. MRSA is popularly called a "superbug" because of its resistance to some types of antibiotics. It first showed up in England in the 1960s, and has been in the United States for at least 20 years. A Journal of American Medical Association study recently found that 95,000 people contracted MRSA in 2005 with approximately 18,000 related deaths. At Kennedy Health System in South Jersey, Dr. Daniel Herriman, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Kennedy Health System, said MRSA cases are growing for a reason. "Locally and nationally we've seen growth in prevalence of the bacteria, and in general we've also seen a growth in number of resistant organisms due to the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics," Herriman said. Sprott stresses that recent reports of students with MRSA is not an epidemic: If one antibiotic is ineffective, doctors will prescribe a different one. MRSA in healthy people is rare, he added. About 30 percent of the population carries the staph bacteria in their nose, according to health officials, only 1 percent carries MRSA -- and most don't contract an infection. The infection is passed through skin contact, but it needs a point of entry, an open wound -- which is why it often shows up in hospitals. In New Jersey, a recently signed law will require all hospitals to test patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) by January prior to being admitted. The law also calls for hospitals to later expand the testing to all patients. Trish Graber is Trenton correspondent for The Express-Times. She can be reached at 609-292-5154.