Latest 'superbug' resistant to most antibiotics, fatal in half of cases
March 8, 2013
This past summer in Colorado, doctors had found a rare superbug had infiltrated their hospital after the bacteria was detected in eight patients. Nearly 2,000 miles away, this superbug quickly spread through the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, killing seven people. The bug, known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, adapts quickly, is resistant to the most potent antibiotics, and preys on the most vulnerable populations in health-care facilities.
Because CRE are resistant to most available antibiotics, they are difficult to treat, and can result in death for up to 50 percent of patients who become infected.
The Vital Signs report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals CRE is increasingly finding their way into intensive-care units and long-term health facilities in the United States. Although the numbers of infections are likely still small, this looming public health threat is one that must be decisively addressed.
Over the last decade, CDC has tracked the spread of these bugs from a single health-care facility in North Carolina in 2001 to health-care facilities in at least 42 states. A new study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology reports a significant increase in CRE bacteria found in health-care settings like long-term care facilities and nursing homes. This trend suggests that patients are unknowingly transferring the bug between hospitals and long-term-care facilities.
We have a small window of opportunity to control this serious threat, when it is potentially manageable. Data from CDC suggest that in the first half of 2012, only about 200 hospitals and long-term acute-care hospitals have cared for patients with CRE infections, but the recent upward trend in infection rates is cause for concern.
To effectively combat superbugs like CRE, we need to confront the problem at hand that has allowed them to thrive - the overuse of antibiotics in health care. Studies have shown that one-third of antibiotics prescribed to patients in hospitals are unnecessary.

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Posted by Ken at 4:50 AM