109thqpgu2hm at mail106.internetMCI.com (Julio Figueroa) writes:
>There is a report on CNN.com. Sounds very scary.
>In article <338C3832.EA at wgn.net>, bobberns at wgn.net wrote:
>> There was a newspaper report in The Hague last Wednesday that a
>> vancomycin resistant MRSA had been identified in Japan.
>>>> Does anyone have any information on this?
>>
Here is a digest of the article the Dallas Morning News ran on the subject
Wednesday, May 28 --
Staph germ may become unstoppable; experts fear new strain of infection
showing resistance to last-defense antibiotic
Laura Beil
* Scientists with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have
confirmed that Staphylococcus aureas has become resistant to vancomycin.
* Vancomycin had been the last antibiotic capable of killing all known
strains of staph.
* Fred Tenover, laboratory chief of the CDC's hospital infections branch,
said the newly isolated strain demonstrated an "intermediate" level of
resistance. "If we're climbing the ladder," he said, "we're almost to the
roof."
* The newly discovered strain was found in a Japanese infant who developed
the infection after heart surgery. The boy eventually recovered with the
aid of other drugs. The Japanese doctors sent samples of the bacteria
causing the infection to the CDC for analysis.
* Dr. Robert Haley, a scientist with the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center, Dallas, and former chief of the CDC's hospital infections
branch, said, "I can't emphasize enough, this is a major turn for the
worse in the fight against infection."
* The CDC expects to publish rules for fighting the new strain of stapthis
summer in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. A discussion of the
Japanese baby will appear in the July issue of the Journal of
Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
* Other experts quoted --
Stuart Levy, an antibiotic-resistance experts at Tufts University in
Boston, Mass.
Dr. Michael Edmon, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Va.
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