MICROSCOPIC DANGERS
The Advertiser (
Byline: TORY SHEPHERD TORY SHEPHERD
Edition: 1 State
Section: Opinion
They are more powerful than modern medicine and are able to leap
from patient to patient in a single day. They're superbugs, as TORY SHEPHERD
reports.
ANTIBIOTICS kill bugs and save lives. They are one of the most
important medical advances of the past century. But since penicillin and other antibiotics have started to be
used widely, some bugs have started to build a resistance to them.
"In the minds of patients and the minds of GPs there's an
expectation that the outcome of a consultation is going to be a pill," he
says.
"GPs sometimes feel they're under pressure to prescribe an
antibiotic."
The Australian Medical Association agrees, urging caution in the
use of antibiotics to stop the proliferation of resistant strains.
It is a case of
When those bacteria hit vulnerable people they can cause fatal
infections and antibiotics are no longer of any use.
The most common superbug is methicillin resistant staphylococcus
aureus, a form of golden staph. MRSA can get into the body through wounds or
broken skin caused by surgery or other medical procedures.
The bug now infecting the
As with MRSA, most people with VRE are not made sick by it. The
bugs remain harmlessly in the gut.
But if someone who has had lots of antibiotics, has a serious
disease, or a compromised immune system is infected with the bug, it can be
very dangerous.
It can cause bloodstream infections, abscesses and death. And
the problem is that it is, as SA Pathology clinical director Professor John
Turnidge puts it, "very sticky".
WHILE most bugs spread from coughing, sneezing or contact, VRE
can spread into the environment. It can cling to equipment, clothes and beds.
Even stringent hygienic measures struggle to control it.
Professor Turnidge says you only have to be in the same room as
someone and you risk infection.
In crowded hospitals the problem is nigh impossible to control.
Nurses have to change masks and gowns between patients, despite their already heavy
workload. Signs throughout warn everyone to make liberal use of antiseptic gels
- but it still spreads. Professor Burrell warns that if the superbugs continue
to spread we are "right back where we were before we had penicillin.
People have come to think that modern medicine should be able to protect us...
so people are a bit surprised to find that we haven't got all the answers in
this area," he says.
The best way to protect against the superbugs is with good
hygiene and, on a broader level, by stopping the overuse of antibiotics.
The latest outbreak at the RAH began when two patients were put
in a room with others and spread the bug. But it was already around anyway and
the Government admits it is probably in other hospitals.
When The Advertiser revealed the present outbreak - now
affecting about 30 people - the State Government immediately responded by
pushing the benefits of its planned new RAH at the rail yards.
Experts, including Professor Turnidge, agree with the
Government. They say single rooms, where people can be quarantined from each
other, are the most effective way to control the contagion.
It may seem a convenient argument at a time when Health Minister
John Hill is struggling to sell the idea of the new RAH to many, but it also makes
sense, and many authorities agree modern facilities designed with infection
control in mind are crucial to controlling the superbugs.
But the new RAH is still years away, so the story of the
superbugs is not nearly finished and could well get worse before it is over.
And superbugs, particularly MRSA, are starting in some cases to
spread into the community, an even more frightening scenario.
((C) Copyright Nationwide News Pty Limited)
