Local hospitals have increased efforts to find and prevent the spread of a deadly drug-resistant form of a common staph bacterium.
The death of a Virginia high school student this week from an infection has sparked national concern at the same time a federal study reported that deaths tied to staph infections exceeded those caused by AIDS, with 19,000 people dying nationally in 2005.
University of Wisconsin Hospital epidemiologist Dennis Maki said hospital officials have been concerned about the bacteria — methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) — for decades.