Posted on 10/22/2010 7:39:18 PM PDT by Graybeard58
A potentially lethal germ resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics is spreading fast in Chicago health-care facilities, new research suggests.
This latest “superbug” is formed when common bacteria produce an enzyme called Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase, or KPC, that makes them resistant to a class of antibiotics used as a last resort when other treatments fail.
The number of Chicago hospitals and long-term care facilities reporting infections with these KPC-producing bacteria has increased 42 percent, from 26 to 37, between this year and last. In addition, the average number of patients who tested positive for KPC infections at each of these facilities increased from four to 10 during the same time period, according to a survey conducted by Rush University Medical Center and the Cook County Department of Public Health.
The survey, presented Friday at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, indicates that while the number of KPC infections is still low, “the increase is quite sharp when you consider that we had the first identified case in Chicago in December 2007,” said Dr. Mary Hayden, co-author of the survey and director of clinical microbiology at Rush.
“Clearly, this is spreading quite rapidly, and now is really the time to try to control it so it doesn’t get to the point of MRSA and some of the others,” Hayden said, referring to the drug-resistant staph bacterium that started in hospitals but ultimately spread to community settings.
In some ways, KPC bacteria are “more worrisome” than MRSA, because there are fewer treatments available for patients who develop potentially deadly urinary tract infections or pneumonia caused by these bugs, Hayden said.
The bacteria, normally found in the human intestines, were first identified in the United States in 1999 and have since spread to at least 35 states. Studies suggest these germs kill 40 percent of the people they infect.
So far, KPC infections in Chicago have mostly been limited to immune-compromised patients in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.
Klebsiella bacteria can be spread through contact with an infected person or the unclean hands of a health care worker, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It typically doesn’t sicken healthy people.
In addition to health care facilities practicing proper infection control measures and limiting the overuse of antibiotics, preventing the spread of KPC infections will require better communication between facilities, so that hospitals know when they are receiving an infected patient transferred from another institution, Hayden said.
“There are bad bugs out there. They’re spreading fast and control really hinges on a regional, coordinated approach,” she said.
FREE health care to the rescue!
All the money is going to discover female Viagra.
Ping to you.
Another good reason to own some silver...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmb-ik0nn88
opps
http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/cs_universal.htm
I suppose you want the gubmit to nationalize the research and direct the money to antibotics? If the needs pressing enough the market will find a solution.
One of the patients in my room was found to have MRSA, so they isolated him. He had been in and out of the hospital with complications since his surgery 3 months prior. I'm glad I got out of there in one piece.
The article says nothing about turning skin the color blue.
Chicago Hospitals??? Isn’t that the one where Michelle Obama graced them with her glorious presence??? Didn’t she do anything about infection protocol and regulating that hospital so every doctor and nurse and worker couldn’t walk without squeaking, they would be sooo clean??? Oh, I forgot, she had a no-show job and didn’t do anything productive for the poor people of Chicago who were later admitted to her hospital system. Get used to stories like this once Obamacare hits the fan.
Thought you might be interested.
Thanks, azishot.
Pinging Smokin’Joe.
Nasty bug awareness ping....(Thanks for the ping LucyT!)
The bacteria, normally found in the human intestines,... KPC infections... have mostly been limited to immune-compromised patients in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.
Can you say AIDS?
I knew you could.
Here we go!
Blue skin! Blue skin!!
sounds like you’d rather have dead skin than blue skin. That’s fine with me...
Does anything good come out of Chicago?
Their baseball teams always seem to have promise but then fade.
Only if you count good for nothing.
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