Lives At Risk From Drug-Resistant Bug.
By Greg CallaghamAUSTRALIA'S addiction to antibiotics has led to the spread in the community of a virulent new drug-resistant form of golden staph that is claiming its first lives, say infectious disease experts.
CA-MRSA (community-acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) targets young, healthy people with infections that can range from minor skin eruptions to loss of limbs and death, according to Peter Collignon, director of the infectious diseases unit at Canberra Hospital.
``If we don't do something to stop this bug from spreading, we're going to be hit on the back of the head,'' he said.
Professor Collignon estimates that there are 40,000 CA-MRSA infections per year in Australia -- and the number is rising rapidly. ``If only one per cent of these go really bad, that's 400 life-threatening cases per annum,'' he said.
Risk of infection is greatest among the young and active, as CA-MRSA is spread by direct skin-to-skin contact. Those involved in contact sports, some indigenous groups, gay men and prisoners are the most likely to get infected by CA-MRSA, but everyone is vulnerable, said Professor Collignon.
Classified early last century as among the deadliest of all disease-causing organisms, staphylococcus aureus lives on the skin or inside the nostrils of up to a third of Australians, and infections are up to 30 times more common than meningococcal disease. One of the three strains of CA-MRSA, most common on the eastern seaboard, can carry an antibiotic-resistant toxin called PVL that can kill within a matter of days.
With no national surveillance system of CA-MRSA or MRSA (the hospital-based form of the bug) in place, Professor Collignon says it's impossible to get a handle on the exact number of deaths or life-threatening infections. ``We can't get the federal Government to look at this,'' said Professor Collignon. ``This is a public health problem they don't want to deal with.'
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A Killer in Our Midst -- The Weekend Australian Magazine
