Drug resistant hospital superbugs like MRSA have been kept under control in Denmark for more than 30 years.
But the latest reports say that in the last 10 years MRSA cases have risen 10 times as new strains of bacteria with resistance genes spread through the community, scientists heard today (Tuesday 1 April 2008) at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
“The new threat is MRSA transmission in the community, without infected people visiting a hospital or care home themselves, where they might be expected to risk contact with drug resistant bacteria”, says Professor Robert Skov from the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark.
“The spread of community acquired MRSA among the general population creates a huge problem for us”, says Professor Skov. “Some infected people will inevitably be hospitalised themselves, or visit friends and relatives who are patients in hospitals. Or they could be health care workers and so will increase the risk of outbreaks of these new types of MRSA. These community strains have evolved independently of the hospital strains and so present a whole new series of problems for control and treatment”.
Staphylococcus aureus is common and usually harmless, it is carried by 25-40% of the population on their skin and in their noses. But if it gets inside the body through an injury, cut, surgical operation or through a catheter it can cause infections. These infections are often mild, causing boils or pimples, but in some cases they may develop into more serious infections affecting the bloodstream, joints and bones.
These serious infections were first brought under control with the discovery of penicillin, but as resistance to antibiotics has spread, new and dangerous superbug strains such as MRSA have emerged. These are far more difficult to treat and can cause life-threatening infections, especially in patients with impaired immune systems or low white blood cell counts.