Drug-Resistant Staph Found

The government is warning hospitals that some staph bacteria strains may be drug-resistant after confirming that a woman died from a heart-valve infection despite taking antibiotics.

The 63-year-old Illinois woman died in April. Hers was the first confirmed U.S. death from a staph infection that didn't respond to vancomycin, the antibiotic of last resort for lingering infections, said a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC warned that some strains of staphylococcus aureus are showing signs of resistance to vancomycin.

The report cited four cases since 1997, including the Illinois woman who died after vancomycin had no effect on a staph infection that had entered a valve in her heart.

The other patients, all seriously ill and treated with vancomycin for extended periods, were in Michigan, New Jersey and New York. The CDC said the Illinois case was the only confirmed fatality.

"This is another example of why we need to use antibiotics more judiciously," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC's director of hospital infections programs. She said the four cases were extremely rare and occurred in very ill people.

Staph bacteria are passed by skin-to-skin contact and are generally harmless. The bacteria can enter the body through wounds, however, and cause serious infections of the skin, tissue, bones and joints. Staph is blamed for about 13 percent of the nation's 2 million infections at hospitals each year.

In November, a Hong Kong newspaper reported that three people had died from an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph bacteria.

Researchers working to develop new antibiotics announced in September that two had proven effective against vancomycin-resistant bacteria in human tests - Synercid, manufactured by Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, and Zyvox, made by Pharmacia & Upjohn.