Posted on 01/02/2007 10:38:12 AM PST by 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.
I concur.
Evolution ping?
But this pathogen doesn't have an adapting immune system. Its DNA has genuinely mutated, turning it into a resistant strain. That's evolution.
Uh, you might want to brush up on your science a little. Strains are not mutations. They coexist with other strains and become dominant when the other strains are killed off. That's pretty much the definition of "strain." If something had mutated they would be talking about mutated variations, not strains.
That is sad news. How is she doing now?
Okay, y'all have convinced me . . . I just called to find out if I can see the doctor tomorrow.
Code, for no HIV/AIDS.
And any other serious and degenerative health problems.
I'd go to the doctor and ask him if you have the MRSA bug.
Glad to hear it!
These "new fangs" we owe to the false god of Free Market. Agrobusiness in search of little extra profit feeds huge number of animals with PRECIOUS antibiotics. This leads to the emergence of drug resistant germs and in the end one of the greatest advances in medicine will be destroyed.
Ping
There is a cure for AIDS you know ... 5000 rads of gamma radiation will fix that sucker right up.
The sad part is, that this will be just another case of "and the band played on". Globalism will probably affect the demise of civilization. I think it might be fun to dig out of the ashes, like in the aftermath of a decent asteroid. Imagine the fun of inventing steam locomotives all over again.
Seriously, the fools in control don't care. The really high-up fools can insulate themselves from nasty consequences such as these. I'm beginning to hear that awful voice in the back of my mind that says, "The Tree of Liberty is getting thirsty".
Ya mean...it's back? Great!
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