My daughter missed the first month of school last year due to a spider bite, doctors like to tell me it wasnt, that MRSA patients commonly present with what "appears" to be a spider bite, but doctors typically dismiss that and say it is just a point of entry at which someone introduced the resistant staph and develope a nasty abcess or infection.We actually saw the two holes from the bite and caught the spider upon moving her matress that was directly on the floor, I KNOW the wound first was a bite, that then developed into a nasty case of MRSA. I still have it to this day in a jar, I took it to her doctors, and I called the zoo, ohsu and wrote the lab at Linfield(my home town college)hoping to have it tested for possibly carrying MRSA. The bite abcessed and tested positive for MRSA(resistant staph)there have been several cases of this in my clean middle class neighbor hood, on either side of my residence even. All occuring around the same time of year, coincidentally through my research, and statistically if you review the cdc tracking of ca("community acquired")mrsa the rates are higher in the late summer/ early fall months, which coincides with the mating time for many of our common spiders in the area. Durring this time they will be out in the open and more aggressive. I am pleased to see OHSU taking an interest in spiders and skin ulcerations, but I also would like someone to test to see if it is possible for them to carry in them or on them the resistant staph. If a mosquito can spread malaria, west nile, disentary, why is it not totally plausible that spiders could have a direct effect on the dramatic rise in Community Acquired Methacylin Resistant Staphlococaus Aurus.

MY DAUGHTER WAS IN 8TH GRADE AND HAD A HORRENDUS BITE(we thought it was a bite)IT WAS VERY PAINFUL AND WAS ON HER THIGH FOR SEVERAL WEEKS-FORTUNATELY IT FINALLY DISAPPEARED BUT LEFT A SCAR-SHE IS NOW 31 SO I AM UNSURE IF THE SCAR IS STILL VISIBLE-WE EVEN TOOK HER TO HER PEDETRICIAN AND HE WASN'T QUITE SURE WHAT IT WAS.