Gaya Elron lies motionless in a Vancouver hospital bed, her body battling a dangerously high fever. One of her blood tests has come back positive for Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus, commonly known as staph), which can cause a serious, even fatal, infection. Now in an isolation unit, Gaya, 11, is being closely monitored by doctors and nurses clad in full protective gear. Her mother, Yael, paces back and forth in the hospital room, wringing her hands and waiting for some answers. It's not unusual for active, healthy girls like Gaya to come down with a flu bug, but they don't usually develop a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection. But times are changing.
Today, mysterious infections such as staph and other superbugs that were once only a concern for hospital patients are a growing concern in schools and day cares across the country.
As she waits to talk to the doctor, Yael reviews the events of the past two days. Gaya, a diligent pupil who studied hard and competed equally hard in sports, had finished the school week with a cross-country race. After school, Gaya told her mother she had a painful ache in her leg, and she seemed to have a mild fever. It wasn't like her to complain without reason, so Yael made a doctor's appointment – but promptly cancelled it when Gaya started feeling better and the fever subsided. "When a child this age gets a fever, you don't run immediately to the doctor," she says, echoing the sentiment of mothers across the country. "Usually it's just the flu or a cold."
Gaya's symptoms get worse
Less than an hour later, though, Gaya's fever was back, climbing dangerously close to 40 C. With the weekend looming, Yael immediately took her daughter to the family doctor. Concerned about the swelling in Gaya's upper leg, that physician advised a trip to the hospital emergency department. There doctors carried out some preliminary blood and urine tests, but found nothing. With no conclusive explanation of her symptoms, Gaya was sent home. In the middle of the following night – 36 hours after her symptoms first appeared – Gaya started to vomit violently, and her temperature skyrocketed to over 41 C.
"I woke up around one or two in the morning and threw up some blood – so we called a taxi and I went to the hospital again," remembers Gaya. After admitting Gaya and carrying out more tests, her doctors became convinced that they were dealing with an aggressive infection, but wanted to determine exactly what it was.
Infectious diseases are caused by microscopic bacteria, viruses and even fungi that move from one person to another – or even from one species to another, as is the case with avian influenza (bird flu). These diseases are transmitted by skin-to-skin contact, through food, bodily fluids or air, and sometimes via another organism that remains unaffected (for example, West Nile virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes). Doctors eventually confirmed the culprit in Gaya's case was staph, typically acquired through skin-to-skin contact. But where had she come into contact with such an aggressive form of the bug – usually not seen outside hospital wards?
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