While You Were Worrying About The Bird Flu

Another antibiotic resistant bacteria has been making it's way across the country.

Deadly Hospital Germ Is Spreading in U.S.: "n the first paper, Vivian G. Loo of McGill University reported that the strain of bacteria responsible for the Quebec outbreak had mutated to be more resistant to a widely used class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. The infection killed 6.9 percent of infected patients, a far higher mortality rate than usually associated with the infection.

One of the reasons for the high mortality rate is probably that the Quebec strain produces much higher levels of toxins than most common strains of the bacterium, the researchers said.

In an accompanying paper, McDonald and his colleagues analyzed 187 samples collected at eight health care facilities in six states -- Georgia, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- and found the same, previously uncommon strain of the bacteria was at every site.

The severity of illness varied around the country, but in some outbreaks patients died or needed to have their colons removed."

Sounds like fun.

Not.