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Super Resistant Bacteria in U.S.
By The Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) -- A staph germ that has resisted medicine's drug of
last resort has shown up for the first time in the United States, the government
said Thursday.
"The timer is going off," said Dr. William Jarvis, a medical
epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We
were concerned it would emerge here, it has emerged here and we are concerned
we're going to see it popping up in more places."
A strain of staphylococcus aureus bacteria found in a Michigan man in July
showed an intermediate level of resistance to vancomycin -- one step from
immunity to the drug, the CDC said. The CDC and the Michigan department
of health would not identify the man or say where he lives.
The patient, who suffered kidney failure, had been taking vancomycin for
half a year for a recurring infection from an abdominal catheter used for
kidney dialysis. He now is being treated with a combination of drugs, including
vancomycin, Jarvis said.
The Michigan discovery came three months after a similar resistant strain
was found in Japan.
In May, the CDC reported that a 4-month-old Japanese infant developed staph
after heart surgery. That strain of staph also showed an intermediate resistance
to vancomycin, and the baby was treated with other drugs.
Jarvis said the new strain is rare and should not deter people from seeking
hospital care.
"The majority of people aren't going to be in danger of getting this,"
Jarvis said.
Nonetheless, U.S. hospitals were alerted to watch for the strain here.
"Now that you have two in such a short time, there will be heightened
concern," said Richard Schwalbe, director of clinical microbiology
at the University of Maryland.
Staph bacteria are the No. 1 cause of hospital infections. They are blamed
for about 13 percent of the nation's 2 million hospital infections each
year, according to the CDC. Overall, the 2 million infections kill 60,000
to 80,000 people.
The bacteria can collect on clothing, blankets, walls and medical equipment.
Hospital workers can pass them on by hand, and they can cling to tubes
inserted into the body.
To combat their spread, many hospitals across the country have restricted
use of their most potent antibiotics and isolated their sickest patients.
Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center in Dallas, said there's no reason hospitals can't eradicate
resistant staph.
"These are unique, special strains that can be eradicated," said
Haley, former chief of the CDC's hospital infections branch. "There
needs to be aggressive surveillance in hospitals. Once you see it, don't
let it stay and spread around the hospital until you can't get rid of it."
For patients, the rise of drug-resistant germs means that the medicine
they get for their infection may not make them better, forcing doctors
to switch to one or more of the 100 antibiotics now on the market.
However, many fear the time is growing near when there will be no alternative
antibiotic to turn to.
Penicillin was a wonder drug that killed staph when it became available
in 1947. Within a decade, some strains grew resistant, a development attributed
to overuse of antibiotics and the failure of some patients to take their
medicine properly.
Then came methicillin in the 1960s, then vancomycin, which was so potent
it was regarded as the "silver bullet" against staph.
"There's going to be a lot of throwing up of arms with doctors saying
now we have to live with this," Haley said. "That is not true.
We must fight it vigorously. We are also going to have to be much more
stingy with our use of vancomycin."
Pharmaceutical companies are working to develop new antibiotics.
An experimental new antibiotic called Synercid, made by Rhone-Poulenc,
killed the strain found in the Japanese infant. In lab tests, it was effective
on the strain of staph in the Michigan man, but tests showed his bacteria
were not resistant to other antibiotics.
Synercid has not been approved yet for general use in the United States.
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