PVL deep tissue infection hitting children

Link: Occult Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Abscesses in 2 Pediatric Patients -- Feder, 10.1177/0009922807306056 -- Clinical Pediatrics.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections have become more common over the last decade. Recently, severe MRSA infections including necrotizing pneumonia, purpura fulminans, and rapidly progressive skin abscesses have been reported. These severe infections frequently have been associated with the virulence factor Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL). Two unusual cases of occult deep tissue abscesses in children who had family members with a history of severe MRSA skin abscesses are presented in this article. Both children initially presented with fever without a focus. Deep tissue MRSA (PVL positive) abscesses evolved. Empiric antibiotic therapy for MRSA should be considered for infants and children who are hospitalized with occult fever and who have a family member with a history of MRSA infection.

Comments

[Emma Tunley]

My family are all colonised with CA PVL MRSA in the nose, throat, perinium and under arm. My daughter, however, has severe abcesses and boils in the perinium area and on her legs and arms. Several courses of Rifampicin and Clindamycine have failed to rid her of this problem and she has now been put on Linezolid in an atempt to clear the skin lesions.One child in her class at school has died of CA PVL MRSA Pnemonia! Will she ever be rid of this afliction or will she have to live with it and treat when her skin is infected? She has severe eczema. regards. Emma Tunley.