Any more information on the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin MRSA infection?

Question

This seems to be a contagious infection. Were the nurses (male or female?) from England or abroad?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6188801.stm

Extra information received 30 minutes after the message was posted.
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The two fatalities were female.

Fatalities occured of young female patients in March and September.

These staph infections are a bit of a mystery to the general public. Most people find them harmless or a nuisance (act as carriers), but some people have a severe reaction.

http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdr/pages/news.htm#pvl

The MRSA strain responsible for this outbreak was susceptible to all non-beta-lactam antibiotics tested (including ciprofloxacin), positive for the PVL genes and resembled closely the South West Pacific CA-MRSA clone (multilocus sequence type ST30) [1,2]. Data from the national Staphylococcus Reference Laboratory show this is the fifth most common clone of CA-MRSA seen in England and Wales, with 13 cases of skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) identified in 2005. This outbreak heralds the first report of nosocomial transmission and known deaths due to this strain in England and Wales.

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/eccmid15/abstract.asp?id=36209

I am not an expert (large pinch of salt).

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/460126_3

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7219

Scientists fear that this offspring superbug strain - which causes serious boils and abscesses and can lead to a severe pneumonia - could pose a major public health threat in the future.

Answer 1

I hadnt heard of it until I saw your question. The sites below are a couple I found. I will be doing some reading up on it to find out more, thanks.;