Another vaccine fails to prevent staph infections

Staph infections remain a significant problem for hospital patients, and scientists are trying to develop vaccines to prevent Staphylococcus aureus bacteria from establishing itself in vital areas like the heart, lungs or blood. But it's turning out to be a difficult task: A promising vaccine intended to protect heart-surgery patients from staph infections worked no better than a placebo, a new study reported. Making matters worse, patients who developed staph infections despite getting the vaccine were more likely to die than infected patients who got the placebo, the study found.