Theos-Talk Archives (February 1999 Message tt00116)

South CHina Morning Post
Monday  February 22  1999
Untreatable 'superbug' kills woman

ELLA LEE
A hospital patient has been killed by a new strain of superbug that is
immune to antibiotics.

It is the first time the bug has been detected in Hong Kong, and was a
direct consequence of antibiotics abuse, a doctor warned.

The patient, admitted to Queen Mary Hospital with a fever, died despite
two weeks of intensive drug treatment to combat the vancomycin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA).

It had previously been found only in Japan, the United States and
France.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said
that when the bacteria spread, no antibiotic was effective and
infections became untreatable.

"We are getting into the terminal stage. It is very dangerous; the
bacteria have broken the last defence," he said.

Doctors around the world are worried about the excessive use of
antibiotics producing drug-resistant bacteria which mutate as they fight
for survival.

"Ten years ago, Hong Kong for the first time found Streptococcus
pneumonia had become resistant to penicillin. Now, 70 per cent are
penicillin-resistant," Professor Yuen said.

"Now we've discovered our first VRSA case. We can't wait until things
get worse. The bacteria must have mutated; it is time to do something."

Staphylococcus aureus are virulent bacteria which live on human skin.
They enter the body through wounds and cause serious infections of the
skin, soft tissues, bones and joints.

The organism spreads through direct contact and can lead to pneumonia
and the fatal bacteremia, which has a 40 per cent mortality rate.

Some strains of Staphylococcus aureus, known as methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), became resistant to the antibiotic
methicillin and cloxacillin in the late 1970s.

Doctors have since then relied on vancomycin as the final weapon in
their defence arsenal.

The middle-aged woman killed by the superbug was admitted to Queen Mary
Hospital in mid-1998 after a prolonged high fever. She was also
suffering from cancer.

A medical assault using all kinds of antibiotics failed to kill the
bacteria.

The medical team was shocked when it found the vancomycin injections
failed. The woman died from bacteremia.

Professor Yuen said doctors were left with only experimental drugs in
the fight against VRSA. Their effectiveness was still uncertain.

The new strain of superbug was more dangerous than vancomycin-resistant
Enterococci. Enterococci, bacteria in the gut, are less virulent.

But merely reducing the excessive use of vancomycin would not help
eradicate VRSA. "We have to solve the problem from the root. If there is
no MRSA, there would be no VRSA. It is simple logic. We have to reduce
use of all antibiotics," Professor Yuen said.

"Patients need to be alerted. They should not seek antibiotics for a
quick cure. It is an issue for all doctors and patients."

The superbug was first found in Japan in 1997, when a boy's infected
surgical wound did not respond to 29 days of vancomycin treatment. Three
other cases have been reported in the US and one in France.


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