The Normally Robust Drew Gooden, a forward with the Orlando Magic basketball team, startled his fans when he missed three games in March because of infected hair follicles on his leg. This was no ordinary infection, however. Gooden, who at first thought he was suffering from spider bites, was laid low by a virulent staph bacteria. He received antibiotics through an intravenous drip for 72 hours while doctors repeatedly drained his leg. "People were trying to make fun, like it was nothing," Gooden said to reporters. "That was serious." To say the least. Recent news of the battle against this superbug indicate that Gooden got off lightly. Staphylococcus au-reus, the bacterium's official name, resides on the skin or in the nasal passages ' of one in three people. It is usually benign but can flare up to cause painful in-fections. For the past 30 years, hospitals have been battling a mutant form called methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) that is resistant to penicillin-related antibiotics and is especially lethal. Now this drug-defying strain is showing up in the general population. It can be deadly if it enters the blood stream, heart, or lungs, killing anywhere from 25% to 43% of its victims.
展开▼
