New drug resistant virus in cow's milk and humans

A completely new strain of Methicillin-resistant staph (MRSA) has been found in cow's milk and in the human body. This is the finding of researchers from Cambridge University (UK), published in the medical journal The Lancet of this country on 3/6.

The head of the research team, Mark Holmes, said the new MRSA , the so-called "carnivorous aphid," is a major threat to human health, especially potentially lethal when infecting wounds.

The concern is that with traditional genetic testing, new MRSA is often misidentified as sensitive to drugs, so patients are often assigned the wrong type of antibiotics.

According to Holmes, there is evidence that dairy cows are "MRSA" reservoirs , but scientists have not determined whether cows transmit new bacteria to humans or vice versa. However, he said products such as meat, milk and products made from pasteurized cow's milk are not harmful to human health and only those who have direct contact with dairy cows are at high risk of MRSA infection. new.

The team stumbled upon new MRSA when examining dairy mastitis in England, Scotland and England. The scientists also discovered new strains of MRSA in patients' samples in these regions and countries.

A separate study published the same day showed that a new form of MRSA discovered in hospitals in Ireland is closely related to the newly discovered MRSA strain in the UK.

It is estimated that MRSA kills 19,000 people a year in the United States, more than the HIV virus that causes AIDS, and a similar number in Europe.