World News and Trends: Resistant staph found in America
A deadly strain of antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria was recently identified in a Michigan man, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This find follows on the heels of a similar discovery of drug-resistant staph in Japan earlier this year. Both strains showed an intermediate level of resistance to vancomycin, one step away from immunity to the antibiotic long considered to be the last line of defense in the medical arsenal.
Many strains of staph bacteria inhabit the planet. They are the collective cause of 13 percent of hospital infections in the United States, some two million cases each year leading to 60,000 to 80,000 deaths annually. The bacteria spread on exposed surfaces such as clothing, equipment, walls and floors, and thus can be passed to patients. To deal with the problem, many hospitals strictly isolate their weakest patients and carefully regulate use of their most powerful antibiotics lest additional strains of staph mutate and develop resistance to the drugs.
Although doctors successfully treated the cases in Michigan and Japan with other antibiotics, concern is growing in the medical community over the lack of alternative drugs to treat such infections, considering that it often takes years to successfully develop and test new antibiotics.
Scientists expected such a staph strain to eventually appear in the United States. "The timer is going off," commented William Jarvis, medical epidemiologist with the CDC. "We were concerned it would emerge here, it has emerged here, and we are concerned we're going to see it popping up in more places." (Source: The Associated Press.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: November - December 1997
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Scott Ashley
Scott Ashley was managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course until his retirement in 2023. He also pastored three congregations in Colorado for 10 years from 2011-2021. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he worked for 50 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He was employed by the United Church of God from 1995-2023, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
