Today's MRSA superbug that is spreading through communities can
be traced back to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that first
emerged in the 1950s.  The first examples of penicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus type 80/81 were isolated in
Canada and Australia in 1953.  Mark Enright of the University of
Bath in the U.K. and his team sequenced key genes from the
decades-old bacteria.  MRSA and hospital hygiene  Although
deaths from MRSA superbugs have occurred at the same time
hospital cleaning staff are being outsourced in the country, an
editorial in The Lancet notes this is merely a circumstantial
link.  The editorial comments on how political parties in the
U.K. have seized on public fears over unclean hospitals.  "This
tit-for-tat political posturing has certainly helped keep health
in the public eye," the editorial reads. "But none of these
policies reflect the real failure in U.K. hospitals: non-
adherence to basic infection control.  Evidence shows that
housekeeping practices are unlikely to have an over