PhytoScience - Article
Superbug's march 'shocking'
Published: Thursday, March 27, 2008
Not confined to hospitals. Aggressive drug-resistant strain infecting healthy people: survey
The number of cases of a superbug that spreads through the body, causing everything from painful boils to bleeding in the lungs, is increasing in Canada and while most are acquired in a hospital, one in six is now coming from the wider community - infecting otherwise healthy people, even children.
This represents a new means of infection for a disease that has been in hospitals for years, but has been largely unknown beyond their walls.
What's more, the new community strain of drug-resistant staphylococcus aureus (known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) is a different kind of animal, doctors say - a "fully-loaded," more virulent, more aggressive pathogen than the "old-style" hospital germ and one that's capable of causing more severe infections.
"This really worries me. This is very serious stuff," said Dick Zoutman, director of infectious diseases at Kingston General Hospital in Ontario. "It tends to be resistant to some drugs, but not all. It attacks very aggressively and makes very healthy people in the community very sick."
Risk factors
The superbug can cause aggressive infections of the bone and spine as well as severe pneumonia. Zoutman said he's hearing "shocking stories" from colleagues in the U.S. { where community-acquired MRSA is spreading rapidly} of what the bug is capable of doing to otherwise healthy children, including severe soft-tissue infections and infections in multiple joints. Deaths have been reported in Texas involving teens who developed a rare form of pneumonia because of MRSA, including a healthy 14-year-old Dallas boy who died last year, four days after he went home from school with a mild fever.
Statistics
Now, the latest results from the national surveillance for MRSA to be made public today {based on data from 48 large adult and pediatric hospitals in all provinces except Prince Edward Island} show that for every 1,000 people admitted to hospital in Canada, eight are either infected with or carrying MRSA. The survey included five Quebec hospitals. The Public Health Agency of Canada has not identified which hospitals were included in the survey, to encourage them to continue reporting their infection rates.
Overall, there were 5,787 "newly identified" MRSA cases during the 2006 surveillance period, of which 3,561, or 62 per cent, were acquired in the hospital, seven per cent in other acute care hospitals and eight per cent in long-term care facilities.
Community-acquired MRSA accounted for 893, or 15 per cent, of the reported cases, meaning the patients arrived at the hospital already infected. The remaining seven per cent of cases were of unknown origin, according to the report being issued by Public Health Agency of Canada.
"Whichever way you cut it, whether you look at it per 1,000 admissions, per 10,000 patient days, the overall rates of MRSA that we're seeing in our Canadian hospitals from coast to coast is increasing. There's no two ways about it," said John Conly, professor of medicine, microbiology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary and Calgary Health Region.
"We're seeing more cases of infection and more cases of people who are carrying or colonized."
Signs and symptoms 
The infection begins with what looks like a spider bite, a red, very tender area that rises up and comes to a head just like a small boil. If not treated promptly, the lesions can develop into large, spreading abscesses in the soft tissues that can grow to the size of a baseball, or even a grapefruit.
People develop fever, malaise and flu-like symptoms. In some cases, MRSA can cause hemorrhagic pneumonia, or bleeding in the lungs.
The strain contracted in hospital, which causes wound infections and pneumonia, tends to be resistant to a number of antibiotics and it colonizes more patients than it infects, Conly said.
The new community strain, on the other hand, appears more nimble and seems to spread more readily. It's also moving out of traditional risk groups, such as intravenous drug users, the homeless, prisoners, people infected with HIV and members of the military. It has infected college and high-school athletes, and schools in Chicago and Boston have reported students infected with MRSA.
Complications
The bug is spread through physical contact, through open cuts and scrapes, poor hygiene and sharing soap, towels, creams, razors and other personal items. About one-third of the population carries the staph germ, whether it's drug-sensitive or drug-resistant. It's the most common cause of boils and infected cuts, scrapes and surgical wounds.
The community bug is starting to creep into hospitals, Conly said. He said doctors will report, at an coming meeting in Montreal of infectious disease specialists, that a small cluster of cases occurred in an intensive care unit in Calgary within the past year.
Some hospitals have starting swabbing all patients to check for MRSA.
But new studies suggest the community strain tends not to be found in the nose, but rather in the groin or rectal areas, "so if they're relying on nose cultures, they may be missing a large number of them," Conly said.
Conclussion
Zoutman said Canada urgently needs more systematic surveillance of infection rates. Surveillance for MRSA, which started in 1995, is based only on a sampling of Canadian hospitals.
"This needs to become a big-budget item," Zoutman said. "This needs to happen nationally so that people who are trying to control these diseases have the information."
Complementary and alternative medicine
Some people with bacterial infections turn to complementary and alternative medicine treatments to help manage symptoms, improve mood and reduce stress. These treatments may include prayer or spiritual healing, meditation, and vitamin and herbal supplements.
A range of dietary supplements and herbal medicines claim to offer new ways to prevent or treat diseases in general. Some supplements show promise and are slowly gaining acceptance in mainstream medicine. But the benefits and risks of many products and practices remain unproved in human clinical trials.
Although some complementary treatments can be a good addition to your regular treatment, take some precautions first:
- Don't stop taking your prescribed medications or skip therapy sessions. Complementary medicine is not a substitute for regular medical care.
- Be honest with your doctors and health providers. Tell them exactly which complementary treatments you practice or would like to explore. There have been many cases {based on test results} where doctors have reduced or stopped medications due to the benificial effects from natural health products.
- Be aware that some complementary treatments can interfere with your regular treatment. Even over-the-counter or so-called natural supplements may interfere with your prescribed medications. When purchasing a health product; read the label carefully. Look for information that may be found in small print that would indicate drug interactions or product warnings.
- Mangosteen juice from the whole fruit puree is one of the latest discoveries to be uncovered and it may be the most promising to date.
Xanthones, which are unique to the mangosteen, as a class of phytonutrients are polyphenolic bioflavonoids. Over 60 research papers show antitumor, antiproliferative, antibacterial, antimicrobial, antihistamine, antiflammatory, antioxidant and gastrointestinal protective effects. Mangosteen has been used successfully for these conditions for centuries throughout Southeast Asia. It also possesses many additional benefits over other natural products. Mangosteen Science
Source: U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention