Posted on 01/21/2007 12:20:09 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
Scientists have unravelled the workings of a deadly superbug that attacks healthy young people and can kill within 24 hours.
PVL-producing MRSA, a highly-virulent strain of the drug-resistant superbug, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, has spread around the world and caused deaths in the UK, Europe, the US and Australia. PVL or panton-valentine leukocidin toxin destroys white blood cells and usually causes boils and other skin complaints. But if it infects open wounds it can cause necrotising pneumonia, a disease that rapidly destroys lung tissue and is lethal in 75% of cases.
Thousands of infections have been recorded across the US, but scientists believe the number is likely to rise in Britain.
In 2004 the bug claimed the life of Richard Campbell-Smith, a fit 18-year-old Royal Marine, who died three days after scratching his legs on gorse during a training exercise in Devon. In December an outbreak at Norfolk and Norwich University hospital killed a baby and infected five others. According to the Health Protection Agency there were 106 cases of PVL-MRSA in England and Wales in 2005 and one confirmed death from necrotising pneumonia caused by the infection.
Scientists at the University of Texas in Houston and Lyon University in France conducted experiments into PVL to work out why it was so lethal. They took two batches of normal staphylococcus aureus bacteria and modified one of them to produce the PVL toxin.
The researchers exposed mice to the different groups of bacteria, to see if they developed lung infections. Animals that inhaled the normal staphylococcus were unaffected, but those that inhaled the PVL-producing staphylococcus quickly developed necrotising pneumonia, with some dying within 48 hours.
(Excerpt) Read more at society.guardian.co.uk ...
My heart goes out to you for your loss.
Almost exact same story with my dad...infection began at chemo port site and he was dead within two weeks.
You have provided awesome material here!
THANK YOU!
I passed this along to a friend who fighting MRSA
My wife had MRSA twice, once after surgery and then it came back later. Both times she spent a week in the hospital.
This is nothing new.
MRSA has been around for at least as long as folks could identify bacteria and virus'.
It has always been lethal and used to cause folks to be isolated in special rooms near CC units.
It is horribly dangerous. I suspect hospitals don't talk about the danger of contracting it, because no one would go into the hospital.
It IS that bad, and it truly is nothing new.
But with the replacement of RNs with cheaper uneducated staff, I would expect to see a rise in the rate of infection.
az..
Used to see patients with MRSA placed in special rooms with special routines near CCU.
Now I see them out on the reg. patient med surg floors, with relatives coming and going at will.
Disgraceful.
I hope it is. It may bee an overstatement for the general hospital population but not her segment of the patient population. Perhaps she sees more of it because she's an occupational therapist and deals with people post op with larger incisions and total joint replacements.
just a guess. I could have mis-heard her too.
I was surprised too that the family had no such precaution. I think the belief is that they're trying to prevent the staff from carrying the infection to other patients. The family just comes and goes to that room. They don't socialize on down the ward.
We can't do your homework for you!
Hmmm, Maybe Iran would like some. Perish the thought, I wouldn't suggest spreading the staph infection in Iran.
It amazes me how many people I have spoken to who have MRSA. One fellow kept getting outbreaks of his skin. There was control by medication, but not cure. I work in a county probation department.
The sterile technique here, as you've noted well with the housekeeper's mop, does not make sense.
Okey Doke.
By putting the patients in genpop, you are more likely to have things like the janitors error happen.
It is very frightening.
Stay out of the hospital, if you can.
Stay well.
Is this disease the same as this one or in the same group:?
CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease - better known by the acronym CJD) is always fatal, and it kills quickly. For Jack Bennett (in good health and an eye doctor), it was diagnosis to death in just three weeks.
Government statistics show at least 5,000 Americans and nearly 200 Hoosiers have fallen victim to CJD in the past twenty years. Most of those victims are over age 50, but there are also cases like that of Zane Mingus, age 32.
Just like trying to make a system "IDIOT" proof makes better idiots, making more powerful antibiotics makes more virulent bacteria.
I’m beginning to wonder if this is some form of a terrorist attack, or a plague on our nation.
Do you happen to wear a t-shirt with the motto “NO FEAR” and have other juvenile habits?
“I’m beginning to wonder if this is some form of a terrorist attack, or a plague on our nation.”
Nope. It’s everywhere and muh worse in a number of other places.
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