Free Republic

BROWNSVILLE - The origin of drug-resistant bacteria's recent outbreak at Cameron County hospitals is stumping health officials. Similar outbreaks of the opportunistic Acinetobacter baumannii have been possibly linked to war veterans. But Dr. Brian Smith of the Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday that the source of the local AB outbreaks was still unknown. And while U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention studies suggests the bacteria could be linked to war veterans, there is no evidence that the local outbreak could have originated from a military veteran who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, Smith said. In an...

GPs urge millions hit by bug to stay at home By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor and Aislinn Simpson Last Updated: 2:14am GMT 03/01/2008 Doctors' leaders warned people struck down by a violent stomach bug sweeping the country not to return to work as GPs reported that they were being inundated by sufferers. More than 100,000 people a week are catching norovirus, which causes sudden vomiting and diarrhoea, and the numbers contracting the disease will peak this month. The NHS advises patients affected to stay at home for 48 hours after they last suffered the symptoms Thousands of workers and children...

Second superbug outbreak kills thirteen By Martin Beckford Last Updated: 11:38am BST 05/04/2007 Thirteen patients suffering from the superbug Clostridium difficile have died at another Norfolk hospital. It was revealed last week that an outbreak of the bug has killed 17 people at the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth, since December. Now the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn, just 65 miles away, has said that 13 of its patients who had C.difficile have died since the start of the year. The bug, which causes severe diarrhoea, was directly responsible for eight of the deaths and...

Superbug death was 'diabolical' By Laura Donnelly and Jasper Copping, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:25pm BST 31/03/2007 The widow of a man who fell victim to a superbug that has claimed 17 lives at a Norfolk hospital yesterday described his death as "diabolical". Great-grandfather Leslie Burton-Pye, 74, was infected with Clostridium difficile in January while visiting the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston for a blood transfusion. He fell ill soon after and was admitted to the hospital where he stayed until released in mid-March. He was re-admitted last Sunday and died the next day. Yesterday, his widow, Mavis, 67, said:...

rp rise in suberbug death toll By Matthew Moore and PA Last Updated: 3:04pm GMT 22/02/2007 More patients are dying of conditions linked to the hospital superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C-diff), it was revealed today. Between 2004 and 2005, mention of MRSA on death certificates rose by 39 per cent while mention of C-diff rose 69 per cent, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Conservatives today described the rise as "staggering", and said the Government had failed to put in place an effective strategy for combatting the bugs. "Labour's savage bed cuts over the...

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...

Hospitals fail to report spread of new superbug 'more dangerous than MRSA' Beezy Marsh, Health Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:13am GMT 05/11/2006 The spread of a dangerous new superbug through hospitals is being hugely underestimated by the Government's reporting scheme, NHS staff have admitted. The shambolic state of infection control on wards is exposed in a survey by the Patients' Association. It found only about a quarter of trusts are gathering data on Clostridium difficile (C. diff), the bacterium that experts say poses more of a risk to public health than MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). Clostridium difficile: More of...