RISE OF THE NEW PLAGUES

[dothedd]

RESEARCHING MRSA I found an old ProBoards link that is interesting: Rise of the New Plagues

Let's see if the link will work?
chem11.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gaiasphere&action=print&thread=1636

Rise of the New Plagues
Post by bigbunny on Oct 24, 2003, 1:50pm

Just when you thought it was safe to swim in the Atlantic off Florida comes a report of a very virulent strain of MRSA (a flesh eating virus) which has affected at least one swimmer and several fishing boat crew:
www.floridatoday.com/topstories/102103bacteria.htm

For those of you who haven't seen MRSA at work imagine if you will an infection which is capable of eating through your skull which if left untreated will kill you by devouring your brain as well. The difference with this new MRSA is the speed at which it attacks the human body. And even worse is the idea that can get it from your local environment.

If this isn't bad enough a new virus has appeared in India that shares some of the characteristics of Dengue Fever and SARS:
it is difficult to identify sharing many of the symptoms of Dengue Fever;
it attacks adults not children, particularly young adults;
it is characterised by sudden deterioration of condition within two days of the onset of fever and causing death through multi-organ failure.

Do any of these symptoms sound familiar - we might be looking at a new form of SARS if we are really unlucky.
www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_431472,0050.htm

[Deleted]

MRSA is a flesh eating virus? I thought it was a staph infection that was antibiotic resistant.

Are your links virus-ridden or something?

[dothedd]

Re: Rise of the New Plagues
Jul 19, 2004, 10:29am

Killer Superbugs Soar In UK Hospitals
SkyNews - UK
7-15-04


Killer superbugs are now out of control with 5,000 people a year dying from viruses picked up in hospitals says a damning report. Health chiefs have been slammed for allowing patients to be treated in filthy hospitals where the number of patients contracting infections is soaring.The numbers of blood infections from Staphylococcus aureus has gone up almost 8% from 17,933 in 2001-02 to 19,311 in 2003-04 - of these 40% were a strain of the deadly MRSA.

Britain has the highest infection rate in Europe for MRSA which is resistant to most antibiotics.

The report says our hospitals are dirtier than those in countries such as Romania.

Staff are still not washing their hands properly says the report but this is not because they are lazy.

Nurses and other staff are so overworked they don't have time to use the bathroom.

No-one knows how many people have died from MRSA but the bug was mentioned in 800 death certificates in 2002.

As well as the human toll, infections are costing the NHS ?1bn a year.

Hospital overcrowding and the fast turnover of patients is highlighted by the report as one of the causes of the increase in bugs.

The National Audit Office produced a league table of best and worst hospitals for controlling infections.

London fared the worst and year-on-year increases were recorded in the south east, north west and west Midlands.

Sir John Bourne, auditor general of the NAO said the government had made important progress in highlighting the problem.

But he added: "However, I am concerned that, four years on from my original report, the NHS still does not have a proper grasp of the extent and cost of hospital-acquired infection in trusts."

Health Secretary John Reid has already announced that ridding hospitals of bugs and higher standards of hygiene must be the NHS's top priority.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Tony Blair said he recognised the seriousness of the problem which he said also existed in hospitals in other countries.

But he said: "As we are trying to treat more people, that puts pressure on the system. We are taking action but it's not going to be made better by extending waiting lists. We must remember that the NHS treats a million people every 36 hours and the majority get treated excellently."


Re: Rise of the New Plagues
Jul 19, 2004, 10:30am

Drug-Resistant Germ Spreading
Outside US Hospitals
By Maggie Fox
Health and Science Correspondent
7-15-04


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A drug-resistant "superbug" found in hospitals has a close cousin that is affecting athletes, prisoners and small children in growing numbers across the United States, disease experts said on Wednesday.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA can become fatal if not treated with the right antibiotics, said Dr. Daniel Jernigan of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"MRSA is showing up in places it had never been seen before -- as a predominant cause of skin disease among children in some regions of the country, as clusters of abscesses among sports participants, as the most common cause of skin infections among inmates in some jails and among military recruits and rarely, as a severe and sometimes fatal lung or bloodstream infection in previously healthy people," Jernigan told reporters.

Most commonly it takes the form of an abscess or boil, and doctors routinely try to treat it with penicillin-based antibiotics, Jernigan said. These will not work against MRSA.

In hospitals, MRSA resists almost everything but an intravenous antibiotic called vancomycin. But so-called community-acquired MRSA can be treated with a range of antibiotics including doxycycline and cotrimoxazole, sold under the brand name Bactrim.

However, 70 percent of the time doctors use ineffective drugs to treat it, Jernigan said. And the community-acquired strain has some of its own nasty tricks.

"Unlike the hospital strains, the community strains were capable of producing a toxin called Panton-Valentine Leukocidin or PVL," he said.

"PVL is a necrotizing cytotoxin, which means it can cause destruction of cells in the skin leading to pus formation but also can cause a serious and often fatal form of pneumonia."

LARGE ABSCESSES

This may be why MRSA infections cause large abscesses and are often first mistaken as spider bites, he said.

It is also easily passed around. "There is something about the community strain of MRSA that, when given the right circumstances and group characteristics, makes for very efficient transmission of the bacteria," Jernigan said.

He said the CDC is trying to persuade doctors to grow cultures from skin infections before treating patients, so they know which drugs to use. Improper use of antibiotics may be helping drive the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria, health experts say.

Jernigan said studies have shown MRSA makes up a significant number of all diagnosed staph infections, ranging from 9 percent in Maryland, to 20 percent in Georgia and 30 percent in Hawaii.

The numbers are rising, Jernigan said. "We also found that rates of community-associated MRSA infections were disproportionately higher among children," he said.

In 2003, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment investigated an outbreak at a fencing club. Outbreaks were reported among high school and college football players and wrestlers in Pennsylvania, Indiana and California.

And between 1997 and 1999 four small children in North Dakota and Minnesota died from MRSA.

Jernigan said five factors were associated with outbreaks of the infection -- crowding, skin contact, abrasions or cuts in the skin, sharing contaminated equipment or towels and a lack of hygiene.

"From investigations of outbreaks at boot camp and in jails, it is clear that MRSA is being first brought into these settings by individuals that are carrying the bacteria in their nose without having any disease," Jernigan said.

"Once introduced, the bacteria can efficiently spread to others, and is then amplified in that setting."