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Hospitals face new superbug threat, scientists warn
Wednesday May 7 2008
Hospitals face a new superbug threat with the rise of a potentially lethal microbe that is at least as hard to treat as MRSA, scientists warned today.
There are now 1,000 cases of blood poisoning caused by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, or Steno, in the UK each year, of which around 300 are fatal, said researchers from the Wellcome Trust and Bristol University.
Some strains of Steno, which is difficult to remove by normal cleaning, are resistant to all available antibiotics. This makes them as dangerous as the current two deadliest superbugs, MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
Dr Matthew Avison from the University of Bristol, who co-led the research team, said: "This is the latest in an ever-increasing list of antibiotic-resistant hospital superbugs. The degree of resistance it shows is very worrying. Strains are now emerging that are resistant to all available antibiotics, and so new drugs capable of combating these pan-resistant strains are currently in development."
Steno flourishes in moist environments, such as taps and shower heads. But the greatest risk to patients comes when it grows into a biofilm coating on catheters and ventilation tubes and from there enters a patient's bloodstream or lungs.
Those most at risk are weakened patients, such as people undergoing chemotherapy, adults with cystic fibrosis and older people in intensive care. Steno infections can cause blood poisoning (septicaemia) or pneumonia.
The Health Protection Agency, which monitors infectious diseases in the UK, played down the risk posed by Steno, noting that it causes less than 1% of hospital acquired infections. A spokeswoman said the bug usually only affected patients who were already "very sick" and never infected healthy people.
She added: "The infection does not spread in the manner of MRSA or C diff. There is little spread between patients, and infections are mostly caused by one-off strains. Usually if more than one person on a ward is infected it will not be by the same strain."
The most recent HPA figures show there were 773 cases of blood poisoning caused by Steno infections in 2006, a rise of 160 since 2002.
Scientists from Bristol University and the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, mapped out a complete blueprint of Steno's genetic code sequence, or genome, which they hope will lead to the development of more effective drug treatments.
Dr Lisa Crossman of the Sanger Institute said knowing the bug's genome should help combat Steno's ability to stick to surfaces like catheters and ventilators, form biofilms, and fight its drug resistance.
She said: "For example, if we know which proteins cause it to stick to surfaces, we could try to develop biochemical compounds that interfere with this interaction. If we understand its antibiotic resistance mechanisms, we might be able to design inhibitors that block them."
The map of Steno's genome is published today in the Genome Biology journal.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "Clean and safe treatment in the NHS is a top priority for the government.
"Stenotrophomonas does not cause infections in healthy people, but can cause infections in patients who are seriously ill with other conditions, especially lung problems.
"NHS staff have worked extremely hard to drive down the number of hospital-acquired infections and the Healthcare Commission is now inspecting each and every acute trust against the hygiene code to ensure that all NHS organisations take appropriate precautions to protect patients."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/07/mrsa.nhs?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews
Wednesday May 7 2008
Hospitals face a new superbug threat with the rise of a potentially lethal microbe that is at least as hard to treat as MRSA, scientists warned today.
There are now 1,000 cases of blood poisoning caused by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, or Steno, in the UK each year, of which around 300 are fatal, said researchers from the Wellcome Trust and Bristol University.
Some strains of Steno, which is difficult to remove by normal cleaning, are resistant to all available antibiotics. This makes them as dangerous as the current two deadliest superbugs, MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
Dr Matthew Avison from the University of Bristol, who co-led the research team, said: "This is the latest in an ever-increasing list of antibiotic-resistant hospital superbugs. The degree of resistance it shows is very worrying. Strains are now emerging that are resistant to all available antibiotics, and so new drugs capable of combating these pan-resistant strains are currently in development."
Steno flourishes in moist environments, such as taps and shower heads. But the greatest risk to patients comes when it grows into a biofilm coating on catheters and ventilation tubes and from there enters a patient's bloodstream or lungs.
Those most at risk are weakened patients, such as people undergoing chemotherapy, adults with cystic fibrosis and older people in intensive care. Steno infections can cause blood poisoning (septicaemia) or pneumonia.
The Health Protection Agency, which monitors infectious diseases in the UK, played down the risk posed by Steno, noting that it causes less than 1% of hospital acquired infections. A spokeswoman said the bug usually only affected patients who were already "very sick" and never infected healthy people.
She added: "The infection does not spread in the manner of MRSA or C diff. There is little spread between patients, and infections are mostly caused by one-off strains. Usually if more than one person on a ward is infected it will not be by the same strain."
The most recent HPA figures show there were 773 cases of blood poisoning caused by Steno infections in 2006, a rise of 160 since 2002.
Scientists from Bristol University and the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, mapped out a complete blueprint of Steno's genetic code sequence, or genome, which they hope will lead to the development of more effective drug treatments.
Dr Lisa Crossman of the Sanger Institute said knowing the bug's genome should help combat Steno's ability to stick to surfaces like catheters and ventilators, form biofilms, and fight its drug resistance.
She said: "For example, if we know which proteins cause it to stick to surfaces, we could try to develop biochemical compounds that interfere with this interaction. If we understand its antibiotic resistance mechanisms, we might be able to design inhibitors that block them."
The map of Steno's genome is published today in the Genome Biology journal.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "Clean and safe treatment in the NHS is a top priority for the government.
"Stenotrophomonas does not cause infections in healthy people, but can cause infections in patients who are seriously ill with other conditions, especially lung problems.
"NHS staff have worked extremely hard to drive down the number of hospital-acquired infections and the Healthcare Commission is now inspecting each and every acute trust against the hygiene code to ensure that all NHS organisations take appropriate precautions to protect patients."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/07/mrsa.nhs?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews