Cover image

Cover In this issue, a study of within-hospital transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) takes place in Thailand. In the illustration, people carrying Thai parasols represent the nasal carriage of S. aureus cells and the string of lanterns symbolizes the person-to-person spread of MRSA. The characteristic grouping of the cells is represented by a crowd at lower right. The illustration is suggestive of people trying to protect themselves from a “cloud” of genetic diversity, which is reported in the study and is a main goal of infection control within the hospital. (Cover illustration by Jennifer Humphreys, www.jenhumphreys.com. [For details, see Tong et al., pp. 111–118.])