Posted on 09/16/2003 8:12:47 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CHICAGO (Reuters Health) -
A group of drug-resistant microbes that infect the intestine have become much more common among hospitalized patients and in the general community over the last decade, a Spanish team of researchers report.
The bacteria are called extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae. The findings are concerning because these microbes are resistant to drugs called cephalosporins, and most can evade other types of antibiotics too.
Dr. Rafael Canton of Hospital Ramon y Cajal in Madrid presented his team's findings here at the 43rd annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
The researchers compared more than 1200 stool samples collected from hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients in 1991 with 400 stool samples collected in 2003. The 2003 samples included ones from healthy individuals, as well as from hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients.
The study is important because it included healthy community-based individuals, as well as outpatients and hospitalized patients with infections, Canton told Reuters Health.
In 1991, 0.3 percent of hospitalized patients who carried gut bacteria had ESBL-producing microbes, the authors note.
In 2003, "we found a very high prevalence" of patients with this type of microbe in the intestine. Overall, 7.5 percent of individuals carried these microbes. Among hospitalized patients, however, the rate was even higher -- 10.7 percent.
Canton believes that "this is the tip of the iceberg."
What you said - also, how do you contract the little critters??
Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
I like the Chai tea I have had at Borders Books but that is pretty benign stuff, it would appear, at least if consumed domestically. Thanks for the head-up. :-)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Enterobacteriaceae are a family of Bacteria, included in the gamma subdivision of the Proteobacteria group. Some of the genera included in this family are:
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