Superbug, dog flu, case of the uglies

An article in the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman talks about how humans can get the MRSA superbug from their pets.

Read the entire article here.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial infection that resists common antibiotics.

A review article in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal describes how dog and cat bites can transmit MRSA and even worse, a potentially deadly blood infection called sepsis. It also tells how touching the skin of infected pets also can transmit MRSA.

It turns out, however, that people are more likely to infect their pets first with MRSA.

The article includes tips on how to prevent the infection as well.

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First there was the swine flu, and now the dog flu?

An article in the New York Times (read it here) says that the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved a vaccine for the H3N8 dog flu.

There is a new flu virus going around. It initially looked quite lethal, and caused panic. Now it is clear that it has killed relatively few victims — and many of those have underlying conditions. It is particularly dangerous to be the possessor of a pushed-in nose — that is, to be a Pekingese, a pug or a Shi-Tzu.

It is the H3N8 dog flu. The virus, scientists believe, jumped from horses to dogs at least five years ago, but it has never infected a human.

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A dog named Pabst with a massive underbite is the World's Ugliest Dog. He was crowned Friday at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Northern California.

See him here on the Chicago Tribune Web site.