by Anthony L. Kimery
http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/7172/149/
Health officials in the US and elsewhere are becoming increasingly concerned over the risk of flu victims contracting fatal pneumonia when also infected with a virulent form of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
"The bacteria we?re dealing with are changing, becoming more drug-resistant," Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, during a teleconference sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "MRSA is causing a significant number of severe illnesses and occasionally death in healthy people after influenza."
In Dallas, Texas recently, a 49-year old woman died of influenza and MRSA pneumonia.
Last April, 58-year-old Emilio Diaz, the father of actress Cameron Diaz, died unexpectedly after developing flu that turned into MRSA pneumonia.
Bacterial infections are a well-recognized complication of influenza, especially in the elderly, but there is now growing concern that MRSA could become an ancillary emergency health problem in the event of an influenza pandemic.
More than two years ago, HSToday.us reported health authorities told it hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) like MRSA that kill an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 Americans each year during routine hospital stays could be expected to be rampant during a health crisis in which tens of thousands ? or more ? persons require emergency medical care under what will likely be less than sterile and sanitary conditions. Conditions primarily responsible for the transmission of HAIs.
Because of this possibility, and the fact that the spread of HAIs is already at an alarming level during non-catastrophic emergency conditions, HAIs are seen as a national security threat by the United States.
?We?re looking at a little known and largely ignored health crisis secondary to a pandemic or large-scale terrorist bombing like a nuke or something,? a source involved in federal emergency medical preparedness planning told HSToday.us in October 2007.
HAI infections can cause serious illnesses and, in severe cases, death. Indeed, infectious diseases are a major cause of illness, disability and death, statistics and authorities point out.
Virologists and emergency public health authorities are alarmed by the thought of a rapidly spreading combination of antiviral resistant pandemic flu and methicillin-resistant MRSA.
?Yes, of course bacterial infection following influenza should be of concern, and antibiotic resistant bacteria of even greater concern,? world renowned virologist Dr. Graeme Laver told HSToday.us last year before he died.
Pandemic health preparedness authorities, virologists, and other scientists expressed alarm this past summer over the findings of two new studies that indicate a potentially significant number of people died during the horrific 1918 influenza pandemic in part because highly opportunistic bacterial infections were able to flourish in these flu victims because the virus severely weakened their immune systems.
Individuals with healthy immune systems are especially at risk if a pandemic is triggered by a highly virulent flu virus like the H5N1 strain because, unlike seasonal flu viruses, H5N1 upsets the chemical messengers that regulate immune function in a healthy, vigorous immune system. These chemical messengers activate an inordinate number of immune cells called a ?cytokine storm,? which causes pervasive inflammation and susceptibility to infections
http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/7172/149/
Health officials in the US and elsewhere are becoming increasingly concerned over the risk of flu victims contracting fatal pneumonia when also infected with a virulent form of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
"The bacteria we?re dealing with are changing, becoming more drug-resistant," Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, during a teleconference sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "MRSA is causing a significant number of severe illnesses and occasionally death in healthy people after influenza."
In Dallas, Texas recently, a 49-year old woman died of influenza and MRSA pneumonia.
Last April, 58-year-old Emilio Diaz, the father of actress Cameron Diaz, died unexpectedly after developing flu that turned into MRSA pneumonia.
Bacterial infections are a well-recognized complication of influenza, especially in the elderly, but there is now growing concern that MRSA could become an ancillary emergency health problem in the event of an influenza pandemic.
More than two years ago, HSToday.us reported health authorities told it hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) like MRSA that kill an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 Americans each year during routine hospital stays could be expected to be rampant during a health crisis in which tens of thousands ? or more ? persons require emergency medical care under what will likely be less than sterile and sanitary conditions. Conditions primarily responsible for the transmission of HAIs.
Because of this possibility, and the fact that the spread of HAIs is already at an alarming level during non-catastrophic emergency conditions, HAIs are seen as a national security threat by the United States.
?We?re looking at a little known and largely ignored health crisis secondary to a pandemic or large-scale terrorist bombing like a nuke or something,? a source involved in federal emergency medical preparedness planning told HSToday.us in October 2007.
HAI infections can cause serious illnesses and, in severe cases, death. Indeed, infectious diseases are a major cause of illness, disability and death, statistics and authorities point out.
Virologists and emergency public health authorities are alarmed by the thought of a rapidly spreading combination of antiviral resistant pandemic flu and methicillin-resistant MRSA.
?Yes, of course bacterial infection following influenza should be of concern, and antibiotic resistant bacteria of even greater concern,? world renowned virologist Dr. Graeme Laver told HSToday.us last year before he died.
Pandemic health preparedness authorities, virologists, and other scientists expressed alarm this past summer over the findings of two new studies that indicate a potentially significant number of people died during the horrific 1918 influenza pandemic in part because highly opportunistic bacterial infections were able to flourish in these flu victims because the virus severely weakened their immune systems.
Individuals with healthy immune systems are especially at risk if a pandemic is triggered by a highly virulent flu virus like the H5N1 strain because, unlike seasonal flu viruses, H5N1 upsets the chemical messengers that regulate immune function in a healthy, vigorous immune system. These chemical messengers activate an inordinate number of immune cells called a ?cytokine storm,? which causes pervasive inflammation and susceptibility to infections