Drug-Resistant Staph Tops Group's 'Hit List'

March 1, 2006 — -- David Jackson still can't believe his ex-wife, Kimberly, is gone -- the victim of a deadly infection she contracted from an unsanitary pedicure.

"Something so stupid like a pedicure took her life," Jackson said. "She couldn't get it healed. No matter what she was doing, and the antibiotics just wasn't, wouldn't stop it."

Kimberly Jackson had contracted a staph infection -- a bacterial infection that can strike anywhere in the body, from the blood to the skin. Many of these bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, and that has many doctors worried.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America today released a "hit list" of six drug-resistant "superbugs." No. 1 on that list is a potentially deadly strain of staph called MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

Dr. Tim Johnson, ABC News' medical editor, said that overuse of antibiotics had contributed to the growing number of infections that are resistant to drugs.

"We're seeing this drug-resistant strain now partly because of the use of antibiotics," Johnson said. "These bugs have a remarkable ability to mutate and develop resistance to whatever we throw at them."

Need More Treatments, Doctors Say

Once confined to hospitals, dangerous staph infections are cropping up in many other places where people interact in close quarters -- schools, prisons and sports teams.

"It is definitely a growing problem," said Dr. John Francis of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "There's a risk of this bacteria that's commonly found in your skin to then be passed from one individual to another."

What's most alarming to health professionals is that as the bug mutates, it grows more resistant to the few antibiotics left that can still treat it.

"We desperately need more tools, because that's how we're going to stay ahead of this," said Dr. Victor Nizet of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Johnson said that some experts believe drug companies aren't devoting enough resources to research new antibiotics.

"Why? Perhaps it's because these companies are focusing more on drugs that will be immediately profitable," Johnson said.

Another challenge in treating drug-resistant strains of staph infection is that they are everywhere, Johnson said.

"About one in three of us harbor some kind of staph bug in our respiratory system or on our skin, without symptoms," he said.

Fortunately, preventing a staph infection is relatively easy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the following:

Keep your hands clean by washing thoroughly with soap and water, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage until healed.

Avoid contact with other people's wounds or bandages.

Avoid sharing personal items such as towels or razors.