A drug-resistant “superbug” outbreak linked to bouncy castles sickened 48 children and teenagers in Ireland — sending 15 to the hospital, with four admitted, according to a new medical report.
Health officials traced the cluster to an outdoor social gathering in eastern Ireland in the fall of 2025, where children and teenagers played on three inflatable bouncy castles, many of them for hours.
Nearly every person who fell ill had attended the event, and all 47 cases who were there had played on the inflatables, researchers reported in Eurosurveillance.
The culprit was MRSA, a drug-resistant form of staph bacteria that can cause painful skin infections and, in serious cases, spread deeper into the body.
3 A drug-resistant MRSA outbreak linked to bouncy castle play sickened 48 children and teenagers in Ireland. Travel_Master – stock.adobe.com The strain behind the outbreak also carried Panton-Valentine leukocidin, or PVL, a toxin linked to skin and soft-tissue infections. Researchers said the strain is rare in Ireland.
The outbreak, which researchers said was the largest reported community-acquired MRSA outbreak in Ireland, affected children ages 5 to 16, with a median age of 12. Most...