h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is a strain of Staph that is a skin disease and it's virulent and spreading in the gay and prison community of Los Angeles. This has been going on for about 8 months now-nobody cared about the prisoners and our County claimed they were being bitten by spiders.

It's fairly unique and nasty in that it does not require an open wound to spread. I've seen articles about it in the LA Times and the local gay rags, so this is not an internet rumor-it is easily researched. These articles all assert it spreads easily, but my doctor says there needs to be some serious skin/skin contact for good transmission, so it doesn't spread casually.

It will give you painful itchy boils, doesn't go away easily, and can kill you if untreated, though not as suddenly or spectacularly as the disease above.

er. yeah. mrsa also happens to be the infection that everybody's the most afraid of - at least at this hospital. that and pseudomonas, which is an innocent little bug until you're sick and your immune system is down - in which case, it is next to impossible to get rid of.

(bit of trivia - you *do* know that we all have staph on our skin, don't you? )

Yep, we're all full of bugs and critters that normally don't kill us. My folks are Chiropractors, so I am not a huge fan of the germ theory of disease.

This particular strain of mrsa doesn't require a compromised immune system, though, so it's real news.

as a result of excessive bacterial promiscuity, no doubt. actually, i'm being dead serious. i'm currently embarking on a study to determine the, er, social behaviour of legionella...