Posted on 01/28/2007 4:09:37 PM PST by blam
Source: Texas A&M Health Science Center
Date: January 28, 2007
Bacteria In Staph Infections Can Cause Necrotizing Pneumonia
Science Daily — Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology at Houston have discovered a toxin present in the bacteria responsible for the current nationwide outbreak of staph infections also has a role in an aggressive pneumonia that is often fatal within 72 hours.
"The virulence of CA-MRSA (community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) strains that produce the PVL (Panton Valentine leukocidin) toxin presents a nightmare scenario," said M. Gabriela Bowden, Ph.D., research assistant professor at HSC-IBT and co-senior author. "If the community-acquired strain establishes itself in the hospital setting, it will be difficult to contain."
The most common cause of staph infections, S. aureus is a bacteria found on the skin or in the nose of about 25-30 percent of people. It also can be the culprit in minor skin infections like pimples and boils, as well as major diseases like meningitis, endocarditis, toxic shock syndrome and pneumonia.
In their study, Dr. Bowden and her colleagues at the HSC-IBT Center for Extracellular Matrix Biology used mice to analyze S. aureus Panton Valentine leukocidin (PVL), a pore-forming toxin secreted by bacterial strains associated with both the current outbreak of CA-MRSA and necrotizing pneumonia.
CA-MRSA causes serious skin and soft tissue infections in healthy persons who have not been recently hospitalized or undergone invasive medical procedures, while necrotizing pneumonia destroys healthy lung tissue and can be fatal within 72 hours. With the PVL toxin, the bacterium also attacks infection-fighting white blood cells (leukocytes).
In the 1940s, the high mortality rate from S. aureus was abated by penicillin, but the bacteria soon developed a resistance. Methicillin provided new treatment options for infections in the late 1950s, but as of the late 1990s, it has become resistant.
In December, the United Kingdom had its first documented report of fatal necrotizing pneumonia cases caused by PVL-positive CA-MRSA. Eight hospitalized patients developed infections from CA-MRSA, and two died. It was previously believed the hospitals were free of these virulent strains of CA-MRSA.
Testing several bacterial strains, the HSC-IBT researchers learned PVL itself has an enhanced ability to disrupt cells in the body, and PVL-positive S. aureus has a greater capacity to attach to and colonize the lung, the latter resulting in necrotizing pneumonia.
"Our research shows in vivo that PVL is sufficient to cause pneumonia," Dr. Bowden said. "PVL-producing S. aureus overexpress other factors that enhance inflammation and bacterial attachment to the lung. These combined effects result in a vicious cycle of tissue destruction and inflammation, explaining the rapid onset and lethal outcome of this type of pneumonia."
Using these findings, the next step is additional studies to identify targets for potential development of therapies to treat S. aureus infections, including the PVL-positive strain.
"The present study underscores the aggressiveness of these strains and the urgent need to develop new strategies to battle these infections," Dr. Bowden said.
Other Science Express study contributors from the Center for Extracellular Matrix Biology were Magnus Höök, Ph.D., director and professor; Eric Brown, Ph.D., assistant professor (now at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston); Maria Labanderia-Rey, postdoctoral fellow; Vanessa Vazquez, graduate student; and Elena Barbu, graduate student. Florence Couzon, Sandrine Boisset, Michele Bes, Yvonne Benito, Jerome Etienne and François Vandenesch from the University of Lyon and Hospices Civils de Lyon (France) also contributed.
Grants from the HSC, French Ministry of Research, National Institutes of Health, and Neva and Wesley West and Hamill Foundations supported this research.
The Texas A&M Health Science Center provides the state with health education, outreach and research. Its six components located in communities throughout Texas are Baylor College of Dentistry, the College of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, and the School of Rural Public Health.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Texas A&M Health Science Center.
I believe MRSA will survive on a stainless steel surface for days. On copper it has a life expectancy of about 90 minutes.
What does the staph look like? I never use flip flops but no problem yet. Just lucky?
I spent 6 years working in nursing homes in building maintenance. The last place had us boxing up the red bags to ship off. People laughed when I suited up with some rigged up protection including wearing a garbage bag. Staph is something nobody who works in health care related areas wants to catch nor do most wish to spread it around. Every night when I came home from work my clothes went in the washer with Pine Sol added. Between Staph, TB, and persons with Syphilis, etc you were wise to be careful.
Look, it bears further study, but that "study" is in no way conclusive of anything. I see "studies" like that every day, mostly from drug companies. Unlike many others, I insist on the methodology and statistical results. And, if you like, I can give you more ammunition, going on all night about the BS--for the profit motive. But this study is a lot the same way of a lot of others.
But to say hospitals deliberately omit effective treatments to generate business is, as I said above, lunacy. It's quite the opposite--expensive, unproven therapies and techniques are all too often used in a desperate attempt to stop exactly this phenomenon. Witness USP 797.
It works really well and in a pinch I have just grabbed a perfume I didn't care for and sprayed them. I have 5 dogs. 4 are shih tzu's I breed and one is a peka-shih. I hate when they get wet and smell like dogs lmao. Since they require a lot of grooming time I try to find ways to cut the time even a little. Keeping a puppy cut on them helps. ~~Pandora~~
IIRC it will draw a splinter out of your finger, too. My Dad thought quinine, turpentine and coal oil would cure almost anything. A hot toddy was a good cure all as well.
ping
The problem (besides government) is that healthcare was, until TEFRA in 1983, by far the worst managed industry in the US. It is still poorly managed. The problem in this specific case is the poor (or maybe accurate, take your pick) cost allocation. Sure, Tylenol costs $ 0.10 or whatever at the drugstore. But in the hospital, much more goes into the "cost", not just the cost-of-goods sold. At home, you procure it yourself, you dispense it yourself, you unwrap it yourself, you administer it to yourself, you don't keep and store written records of it, you don't study it in committee after committee, you don't pay insurance for giving yourself the wrong thing, and at home, you've paid for it--you don't have bad debts, etc.
That doesn't excuse a large component of the higher price, but let's face it--in almost all cases this is "soft" money for which the hospital won't get reimbursed anyway, whether it charges $ 0.05 or $ 1,000 for the same $ 0.10 tablet. And some other drugs have a much higher component cost with respect to the actual cost-of-good sold.
With respect to lunches for Docs, I totally agree with you. I think it's unethical to offer or to accept (I'm old enough to remember when it was really bad). None of my people (we are not physicians) is allowed to accept ANYTHING free, including ball-point pens. And when I go to, say, antibiotic conferences, I decline all airfare, meal costs, and hotel accommodation reimbursement. The drug companies think I'm crazy (I may be, but this isn't proof of it). I pay for it myself simply so there is absolutely no question of ethics. I am continually being accused of being a prig, but that's what I have to be to live with myself.
You're welcome and I thank everyone for their input on this subject. Scary.
I think neckties for doctors in the UK hospitals have now been banned. They are feared to be transmitters of MRSA.
That was my first thought too.
I have a friend who at 65 was still playing competitive softball. He was the model for a healthy life. He went in for a routine knee operation, got a staph infection and nearly died. It took him almost a year to get over it. It also caused some other medical problems he now has to deal with.
What evidence do you have that they spread infection?
She knew she had been bitten. The beach patrol was warned spiders were under the boardwalk. She didn't seek medical care right away. Spiders were never a thing we worried about here in NJ...(one of the few things lol.) But it was a spider bite and then the other stuff came along. She was in the hospital for over a month. The sad part was I couldn't see her as I have hep c and they were afraid with a lowered immune system I would get it. MRSA is nothing to fool around with. Nor are spider bites.
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