# 2528
Maryn McKenna brings us a cautionary tale about a man who died last February in Tucson, Arizona from what was originally feared to be the Hantavirus - but turned out to be MRSA Pneumonia instead.
In It's flu season: Watch for MRSA pneumonia, Maryn writes (excerpt):
We have talked before (here, here, here, here and here) about the particular danger of MRSA infection during flu season, when (it is theorized) micro-trauma to the lungs by flu infection allows MRSA to gain a foothold. Once it begins, MRSA pneumonia proceeds with incredible speed — I have spoken to parents whose children went literally from apparently healthy to dead or close to it, within 24 hours — and it is commonly mistaken either for flu or for community-acquired pneumonia, the usual drugs for which have no impact on MRSA.
Follow the link to read the entire article, and if you haven't already, bookmark her blog.
Maryn McKenna, who writes often for CIDRAP, is the author of the critically acclaimed non-fiction book, Beating Back The Devil, and penned the award winning 7-part series The Pandemic Vaccine Puzzle last year.
Her blog Superbug serves as a virtual white board for her research on her upcoming book on MRSA; SUPERBUG: The Rise of Drug-Resistant Staph and the Danger of a World Without Antibiotics, coming in 2009 from Free Press.
