SUPERBUG IN AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC HOSPITALS

Doctors will ask the Government to launch a national surveillance plan for deadly strains of golden staph, amid new evidence the bacteria are spreading faster and further. A group of specialists in infectious diseases will meet the chief medical officer, John Horvath, this month to develop strategies to stop the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). A high proportion of the new bacterial strains carry a potentially lethal toxin. John Turnidge, the head of laboratory medicine at Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital, said the Government should stop doctors overprescribing antibiotics for mild infections. This altered the balance of healthy bacteria in the skin and digestive tract, allowing people to be colonised by aggressive strains of golden staph. Though not usually a problem, these strains could, in rare cases, enter the bloodstream or lungs and cause a serious disease. Professor Turnidge said a system was needed to collate automatically details of bacteria identified across the country. "You need to get those big numbers in from the labs to provide an early-warning system" for new variants.

Recent samples from people with severe pneumonia or blood-poisoning showed a fast-spreading strain of MRSA, rife in Western Australia, had acquired the Panton-Valentine leukocidin toxin, which can destroy tissue and white blood cells. Professor Turnidge said that a three-year-old girl had died in Adelaide this year from pneumonia caused by a PVL-positive version of the West Australian strain. She was the second fatality in Australia from an illness related to that toxin. Until now, the toxin had been linked to two strains that occur mainly in the eastern states.

The head of microbiology and infectious diseases at Royal Perth Hospital, Keryn Christiansen, said laboratories should be obliged to report all cases of MRSA that occured outside hospitals. "The Federal Government should show leadership here. I think there is a good reason to fast-track this. It's a serious enough problem," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Health Department, Kay McNiece, said that although mandatory reporting of infectious diseases was a states matter, "the Commonwealth is still very concerned and wants to know what's going on".

Source

***************************

For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation.

Comments? Email me here. If there are no recent posts here, the mirror site may be more up to date. My Home Page is here or here.

***************************