The most notorious of these is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bug that infects wounds and has become rife in hospitals.

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One nasty bug inhabiting American hospitals, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is linked to 18, 650 deaths each year, a 2007 study concluded.

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It was only a few years ago that MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - was a major threat in UK hospitals.

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Experts say Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a form of staph resistant to common antibiotics, has become a more prevalent problem in settings such as contact sports that involve skin-to-skin touching.

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The bugs in question run the gamut from fungi, which cause ailments such as athlete's foot, to viruses that cause herpes or a potentially deadly infection known as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.

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He also advises asking for proof of a tuberculosis screening within the past year, as well as a recent test for community-associated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), which can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact and cause painful skin infections and boils.

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Personal touchscreen devices aren't as bad as the self-checkout screens in grocery stores, but he knows of rare cases where people contracted a serious skin disease called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, from sharing a cell phone with bacteria on it.

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The woman had succumbed to a resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus, a nasty microbe that causes many respiratory and wound infections.

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By testing out various combinations of amino acids, Dr Ghadiri found several octets that were particularly effective against the antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus, a common pathogen.

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