It Has Begun- Multi Resistant Bacteria Outbreak In Hospital- 11 Dead 27 Infected

[stromboli]

http://www.dw.de/german-hospital-gripped-by-outbreak-of-multiresistant-bacteria/a-18215053

The bacterium in question, Acinetobacter baumannii, has been excluded as the cause of death in nine of the 11 cases, according to a hospital statement. In the other two cases, concerning patients aged 87 and 70, Schleswig-Holstein University Clinic (UKSH) spokesman Oliver Grieve said it "couldn't be ruled out" that the strain was solely responsible for the deaths.
As of Saturday, 27 patients had been infected with the bacterium, which, according to experts, is particularly infectious among patients with immune deficiencies. For patients of normal health, the strain is considered far less dangerous.
Difficult to fight
The reason for the alarm - and the impetus for flying in a team of leading specialists from the Frankfurt University Clinic - concerns the strain's almost impregnable resistance to antibiotics, the standard treatment of bacterial infections.
"We are dealing with an extremely resistant strain of bacteria," Harald Seifert, a professor at Cologne University's Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene, said in an interview with DW. "Over the years, the spectrum of its resistance has grown to the extent that, to my knowledge, only one antibiotic can be used: colistin."
Seifert, who has researched and written extensively on A. baumannii, said it was "safe to assume" that colistin would be administered to the infected Kiel patients, though he added that he "didn't want to speculate" about how his colleagues were proceeding in Kiel.

Hygiene: The key to prevention
According to the Kiel clinic, all necessary steps have been taken to contain the outbreak; all infected patients have been isolated in intensive care. The hospital has also dismissed criticism raised by a number of support groups that allege that mistakes were made with regard to hygiene practices at the clinic.
"It is unacceptable that 40,000 patients die each year as a result of hospital infections," Eugen Brysch, chair of Germany's Institute for the Protection of Patients, wrote in an email statement to DW. "The Kiel infections show just how important it is that we implement an action plan … to establish national guidelines for hygiene practices at every single hospital in Germany."
The German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology, meanwhile, has defended the Kiel clinic in the face of such allegations, declaring that "all necessary steps were taken," and adding that "such outbreaks, despite thorough countermeasures, cannot be completely ruled out."
Seifert of Cologne University said that intensive stations needed to be better staffed - and more thoroughly informed - of what he called the decisive importance of precise hygiene.
"In the end, it's the only real means of prevention," Seifert said. "Given the multiresistant and infectious nature of A. baumannii, every effort should be made to prevent and contain outbreaks; this also requires to allocate sufficient staff including nurses, infection control and infectious diseases specialists. This is a very important point to be made."

Nasty shit. And we'll see more ere long.

[Munch]

I've caught more virus' from going to hospitals then anywhere else, even when I'm ocd, a germophobe and clean myself constantly, it doesn't stop the spread, considering how many carriers there are in those places.

[dtq123]

Next slide please? When does the epidemic start?

Seriously, my health teacher has higher standards of cleanliness.

She makes us wear masks, just to enter the classroom. Sick people get to stay at the nurses office. Two months of work was just learning how to wash our hands properly, putting on gloves and gowns, and disinfecting our stuff.

Malpractice has become epidemic lately. As things speed up, nurses struggle to keep up and resort to less effective levels of cleanliness. They want to help people and rush to do so, putting themselves and others at risk. A bit sad for everyone really.

[stromboli]

Hopefully there won't be an epidemic. nonetheless, there is currently only 1 drug I'm aware of that is still in trials that could conceivably stop an outbreak of a super bacteria.

The problem is that it is not just one. TB has become resistant more than once, and will continue to do so. The Ebola plague, a virus, has also apparently morphed from its first discovery back in the 70's. And influenza in all its stages; the latest antiviral meds have proven to be less effective than previous incarnations. So yes, there is reason for concern. 

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Probably a good idea to make kids go outside and play in the dirt once in awhile so as kids they can get immunities to certain bacteria and germs instead of turning them into purell drones afraid of wiping their own asses. I do wash my hands regularly, but not by any means any kind of germaphobe.
I spent years climbing in and out of dumpsters and told my doctor I could probably safely drink out of the toilet, but of course I never have.
This compulsory hand disinfecting probably isn't helping matters with the general public.

[Munch]

Probably a good idea to make kids go outside and play in the dirt once in awhile so as kids they can get immunities to certain bacteria and germs instead of turning them into purell drones afraid of wiping their own asses. I do wash my hands regularly, but not by any means any kind of germaphobe.
I spent years climbing in and out of dumpsters and told my doctor I could probably safely drink out of the toilet, but of course I never have.
This compulsory hand disinfecting probably isn't helping matters with the general public.

agreed. I caught the measles when I was a kid (mum took a photo of me stood n the garden in my underwear looking misrable with red spots all over me, and i played in the dirt and cause bugs and colds. I still get sick now but have no issue fighting it off.

Drugs can only do so much if someone doesn't have a strong immunity, and schools and parents today are so paranoid about germs.

[Mermaid]

There are a few multidrug-resistant bacteria that are found in large numbers in US hospitals, filthy places. My Mom got two of these, MRSA and C-diff, while being treated for a vascular disease.

[Shiranu]

I guess I am "lucky" in that I spent about half of my childhood in a military hospital while my dad was there. Was exposed to all sorts of who-knows-what but never really got sick from it, so maybe that constant exposure helped my immune system.

[Jason78]

Haven't they just discovered an entirely new antibiotic recently?

[Agramon]

Haven't they just discovered an entirely new antibiotic recently?

Yeah I remember hearing about that. Resistance builds fast if they treat with it alone, though.

It's too bad bacteriophage therapy isn't at the point where it could supplement in instances of extreme drug resistance.

[Solitary]

Probably a good idea to make kids go outside and play in the dirt once in awhile so as kids they can get immunities to certain bacteria and germs instead of turning them into purell drones afraid of wiping their own asses. I do wash my hands regularly, but not by any means any kind of germaphobe.
I spent years climbing in and out of dumpsters and told my doctor I could probably safely drink out of the toilet, but of course I never have.
This compulsory hand disinfecting probably isn't helping matters with the general public.

Good post APA, you are correct! The problem is that there all these products that kill germs that cause them to get stronger via evolving. And also, people using antibiotics for a virus. I had a fellow I worked with said he was always in the hospital with his very young son that was sick all the time. I asked him if he was kept clean, he said yes that his mother keeps him off the floor and way from dirty places, and keeps him Spic & Span all the time.  I told him that is why he is sick all the time, his body doesn't know the good germs from the bad one so doesn't kill the bad ones so he gets sick. Solitary

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Whenever I see someone sanitize their hands and go to the gym I tell them there's no use. You're going to die anyway.
I've fully adopted my own philosophy of get old or just go ahead and die. The world could use a few hundred million less people and think of the jobs created burying and cremating them all. Its all about jobs jobs jobs!

[Mermaid]

Haven't they just discovered an entirely new antibiotic recently?

Yes.
http://www.webmd.com/news/20150107/new-antibiotic-may-combat-resistant-bacteria
But it is still in the R/D stage, and will take a lot of time before it's available to market. It has an advantage in that resistance won't be an issue for a long while, but there are an awful lot of scientific and regulatory hoops to jump through to get something like that approved. When you hear about a new discovery, you can be pretty sure that, if all things go well, you won't see it for 15 or so years. That is if all things go well. They usually don't though. Most new discoveries fall out of bed for varied reasons--safety, efficacy, spectrum, cost of goods, raw material supplies, etc etc etc.
Something working like a charm in vitro doesn't usually translate to it working like a charm in vivo.

[Agramon]

From the linked article:

Teixobactin's potential effectiveness suggests that the new technology "is a promising source in general for antibiotics, and has a good chance of helping revive the field of antibiotic discovery," Lewis said.

Teixobactin kills bacteria by causing their cell walls to break down, similar to an existing antibiotic called vancomycin, the researchers said.

It also appears to attack many other growth processes at the same time, giving the researchers hope that bacteria will be unable to quickly develop resistance to the antibiotic.

"It would take so much energy for the cell to modify that I think it's unlikely resistance will appear," said study co-author Tanja Schneider, a researcher at the German Center for Infection Research at the University of Bonn in Germany.

The authors note that it took 30 years for resistance to vancomycin to appear, and they said it will probably take even longer for genetic resistance to teixobactin to emerge.

I missed the bolded parts the first time around - that is pretty neat!

[Mermaid]

It is promising and cool as hell. I hope it works.