3 Valley residents fall to new bacteria strain [Patients on anti-biotics MOST at risk]

http://www.avpress.com/n/09/0809_s7.hts ^ | Wednesday, August 9, 2006.

[BenLurkin]

It begins as microscopic bacteria that invades the intestine with the potential to kill in extreme cases, or cause severe bouts of diarrhea in other instances. Probably a hundred cases have occurred in the past year in the Antelope Valley, though most of those stricken with Clostridium difficile survived, according to Dr. Michael Cohen, an infectious diseases specialist in Lancaster who tends to patients at Antelope Valley and Lancaster Community hospitals.

"We've had cases at both hospitals," Cohen said. "Cases have been documented nationwide. At least three patients in Antelope Valley died."

Deaths usually result from one of two conditions: Either patients go into septic shock and physicians can't bring their blood pressure up, or their bowels will rupture, "analogous to a ruptured appendix," Cohen explained.

More often, doctors can save patients who contract C. diff, as the medical world calls it, through treatment or extreme measures.

"In an extreme case, we had one patient at Lancaster Community Hospital that needed her whole colon removed to save her life." Cohen described her as a 60-year-old woman who will be hooked to a colostomy bag the rest of her life.

{snip}

Normally, when C. diff enters the intestinal tract, Cohen said, it "can't compete very well with normal bacteria" that exist in the bowel. "Everyone's bowel is filled with millions of bacteria that help us digest food and help the gastrointestinal tract."

But some antibiotics "kill off the good bacteria," enabling C. diff to survive, Cohen said, "because it's drug resistant." Thus it has "open reign on the bowel, increases in numbers and starts making toxins," which poison some individuals. "It makes spores, kind of like anthrax makes spores. It's actually the toxins that make you sick, not the bacteria itself

[BenLurkin]

"C. diff"

Sounds like the name of a hip-hop rapper.

[aft_lizard]

So Vancomycin doesnt work? That sucks, I have seen pics in my biology books of what C. Diff does to a colon and it is downright nasty and if Vancomycin cant take it out then you are pretty much screwed.

[Publius6961]

Free Republic is an international forum. Providing a location, or at least a state would be nice.
There must be several "Antelope Valleys" in the United States alone.

The Antelope Valley Press serves north Los Angeles County and southeastern Kern County in southern California with a full-service newspaper seven days a week.

[BenLurkin]

You make a good point.

I chose to post this in chat. That meant that the state was not one of the options for topics.

No doubt there are, however, a number of ways for me to identify the locale with more specificity the next time this comes up.

(As an aside, this bacteria is a national problem apparently.)

[BenLurkin]

More on this topic:

"Recovering from C. diff"

http://www.avpress.com/n/09/0809_s8.hts

[BenLurkin]

"Practice good hand washing, safe food preparation and storage. If traveling, use bottled water," even to brush teeth. "Avoid drinks that contain ice. Don't purchase food from street vendors. Don't eat raw vegetables or fruits. Make sure all meat is cooked thoroughly."

[CholeraJoe]

C. diff's been around and known to medicine for nearly 30 years.

[aft_lizard]

Yes...but it is gaining resistance to even our most powerful antibiotics and chemical agents..if our last line of defense against killer strains of bacteria cant kill it then we are up s+++ creek, and across the spectrum more and more bacterium are gaining these resistances and microbiologists and chemists in the future are going to find it harder and harder to keep up.