Antibiotic-resistant superbug arose in northern Manhattan

You can never be too safe.

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Human skin is a garden of microbes that is home to about 1,000 bacterial species. Most are benign, but some invade the skin and cause illness—of these, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are particularly dangerous.

We normally associate these resistant bugs with hospitals, but new research finds that they could be living and spreading in households and within communities, too. For one notoriously resistant bug, scientists have also been able to pinpoint where and when it first began spreading. The hope is that this knowledge will allow a better way of controlling infection and stopping epidemics.

The Staph of nightmares

About one in five humans carries the disease-causing bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, or Staph, on their skin without any problem. However, breached skin, surgical wounds, or low immunity (often caused by HIV infection or cancer treatments) may allow Staph to cause diseases ranging from minor skin ailments to catastrophic infections.