Superbug Emerging Across Canada (MRSA)

CanWest ^ | 1-2-2007 | Sharon Kirkey

[blam]

Superbug emerging across Canada

Sharon Kirkey, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, January 02, 2007

A superbug that causes infections from large, boil-like lesions to hemorrhagic pneumonia and, in rare cases, ''flesh-eating'' disease is poised to ''emerge in force'' across Canada, a new report warns.

While the prospect of a flu pandemic has governments scrambling to develop emergency plans, an epidemic of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA, is already raging in the U.S. and beginning to entrench itself here, infectious disease experts report today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

In the U.S., clusters have been reported in groups from NFL players to toddlers in day care.

In Canada, outbreaks have occurred in hospitals in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Infections are being reported in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City. The Calgary Health Region sees between 40 and 70 cases per month.

Doctors are now investigating the possible transmission of the community-acquired staph strain among a small group of Calgarians, which would be one of the first Canadian reports outside a hospital setting.

''Not a day goes by where I'm in clinic that I'm not pulling out a scalpel to drain one of these things,'' says Dr. John Conly, co-author of the report and an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the University of Calgary.

''We're seeing far too many of them.''

The organism is an ''old foe with new fangs'', a pathogen that is virulent, drug-resistant and has an uncanny ability to ''disseminate at large,'' according to the CMAJ report. So far, its prevalence is thought to be low but rising in most parts of the country.

''Front-line physicians need to be aware of the increasing prevalence and the potential severity of CA-MRSA infection,'' the researchers write. The germ killed a healthy 30-year-old Calgary man and a three-month-old baby in Toronto in 2005. Both died of necrotizing pneumonia, or lung abscesses.

The infection begins with what looks like a spider bite, a red, very tender area that rises up and comes to a head just like a small boil. If not treated promptly, the lesions can develop into large, spreading abscesses in the soft tissues that can grown to the size of a baseball ''or even a grapefruit in some settings,'' Conly said in an interview.

People develop fever, malaise and flu-like symptoms. In some cases, MRSA can cause hemorrhagic pneumonia, or bleeding in the lungs. ''For some reason, there are people who are predisposed to develop what looks like standard pneumonia and very quickly they begin to cough up blood,'' Conly said.

Once confined to hospital patients, the staph infection is now occurring in healthy people. The community strain ''doesn't carry as much genetic baggage'' as the hospital strain and is sensitive to other antibiotics, Conly says.

''But it seems to have a propensity to cause very large abscesses in the soft tissues with copious drainage, and seems to spread much more readily than the hospital strain has done.''

It's also moving out of the traditional risk groups, such as intravenous drug users, the homeless, First Nations, people infected with HIV and the military.

[riverdawg]

"MRSA = ... = Swine Flu"

Although it's true that MRSA has long been a problem in hospitals, military barracks, nursing homes, and other communal-living settings, what is disturbing about recent outbreaks is the rising prevalence among *otherwise healthy* people with no obvious risk factors for it.

A dermatologist friend of mine claims that most cases he now encounters are in people who report they have recently stayed in a hotel while on a business or vacation trip.

[Allan]

As my grandfather used to say
if you want to get sick go to a hospital.

[LiveFree99]

Paging Art Bell, paging Art Bell, please pick up the red alarmist phone.

[Perdogg]

I probably shouldn't have made out with that cute blonde with the cough on New Year's Eve. ;)

[xarmydog]

Wife got MRSA very bad.She was fighting off a nasty brown recluse bite and visited her Dad in the hospital.The doctors treated her for another bite[they thought]for thirty days until the infection colonized into a group of four lesions.She had to undergo a week of infusions which consisted of the strongest antibiotics administered twice a day for a week.Each infusion took 3 hours,twice a day.Six in the morning and six at night.[Time schedule].After doing research on the internet,we learned a lot about it.It is nasty and more prevalent than you know.A hospital in a big city close by has an entire floor devoted to this particular infection.Her treatment was given in the local ER,and I met many people I knew undergoing the same treatment!Many of the ER nurses did not even wear gloves!The info I read mentioned that if you get it once,your chances of getting it again were very high.Nasty stuff.And the infusions are painful.

[Lazamataz]

A dermatologist friend of mine claims that most cases he now encounters are in people who report they have recently stayed in a hotel while on a business or vacation trip.

So skiing is right out.

Damn, and I just took it up.

[leenie312]

Ok I have a question and would appreciate anyone who can answer it. My daughter has been sick and on antibiotics maybe 4 or 5 times in her life..she is now 14....when the doctor said she had a viral infection..I did not treat it with antibiotics..because viruses are not the same as bacteria..therefore it seemed a general waste of money to go out and buy them to treat something that couldn't be treated by them.

I on the other hand lived on antibiotics for the first 7 years of my life because of infections in my tonsils. Seemed I was always on them.

Now,the question and it may sound stupid...but here goes. Will my daughter...if she comes in contact with a superbug...be less susceptible to it? Or is the bug something that will attack her anyways? Will her body be more able to fight an infection because of not over using antibiotics? Was it worth it to avoid the overuse of antibiotics with her. Am I more susceptible to superbugs because I was always on antibiotics...? Or does it matter either way?

An inquiring mind wants to know....

[LucyT]

Thanks for the ping.

[Xenalyte]

The infection begins with what looks like a spider bite, a red, very tender area that rises up and comes to a head just like a small boil.

Well, just damn.

After Xena's Guy and I got home from the beach yesterday, I noticed on my right leg what I thought was a spider bite, but which answers this description exactly.

Should I worry, do y'all think?

[ARridgerunner]

I go every day. (almost)

[krb]

I'd go to the doctor.

[listenhillary]

Amputate

[Lee'sGhost]

Nah. It's probably just small pox or typhoid.

[bert]

.....Additionally, some diseases are simply adapting to the above tactics.....

Folks on FRee Republic don't believe in evolution. Must be something different.

[aruanan]

Will my daughter...if she comes in contact with a superbug...be less susceptible to it?

No.

Or is the bug something that will attack her anyways?

Yes.

Will her body be more able to fight an infection because of not over using antibiotics?

No.

Was it worth it to avoid the overuse of antibiotics with her.

Using them doesn't constitute overuse. Many times an antibiotic is used in conjunction with a viral infection to combat secondary, bacterial infections.

Am I more susceptible to superbugs because I was always on antibiotics...?

No.

Or does it matter either way?

No.

[Lee'sGhost]

"Folks on FRee Republic don't believe in evolution. Must be something different."

I'm not big into the evo debate, but I feel compelled to point out that adaptation and evolution are two different things. We develop immunities all the time, that does not mean we've evolved into something we weren't last year.

[Bacon Man]

Spider bite?! BAH! More likely a CIA tracking implant that's malfunctioning. Not to worry though, I'm sure the techs will be along to repair it next time you sleep. ;)

[TenthLegion]

I'd worry more about the plague that is Quebec

[Neoliberalnot]

"Folks on FRee Republic don't believe in evolution. Must be something different."

I think it is more a case of rejecting the dark ages theory of spontaneous generation of complex systems. I keep looking for the dream car of mine to appear fully assembled in the field outside my house, but alas, it has not happened. Then I figured out that somebody must have created the car I drive to work.

[Fawn]

I think this kid at Office Depot has this. He had boils all over his face. I had to leave.