The potentially fatal germ that enters the bloodstream has escaped its hospital setting, the CDC said Tuesday in its first overall estimate of the invasive disease.
More than 94,000 Americans each year are infected by the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carried by healthy people on the skin or in their noses, it said in a study published Oct. 17 by The Journal of the America Medical Association (JAMA).
The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people - an "astounding" number, said a JAMA editorial.
Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, one public health expert told The Associated Press.
In 2005 MRSA was responsible for 18,650 deaths compared with roughly 16,000 Americans who died from AIDS in 2005, CDC researchers said.
"MRSA infections are an important public health problem that can no longer be ignored," CDC researcher R. Monina Klevens told WebMD.
Called a super bug because it is resistant to so many antibiotics, MRSA can cause bloodstream infections, surgical site infections and pneumonia.
