New superbug strain loose in the community

[Legba]

Link

There is a new super strain of the superbug, which began in Queensland and has spread throughout Australia - and not just in hospitals.

And the difference this time is that it affects young, healthy people.

Geoffrey Coombs, a microbiologist from Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Royal Perth Hospital, says clones are evolving in the community.

"The picture is not good. We are going to find more and more of these organisms evolving, emerging in the community," he said.

He says at least one in 10 of all staph infections contain dangerous superbugs.

"Half of those contain what we know is a major virulence factor that causes much more severe disease," said the department's Associate Professor Keryn Christiansen.

Since 2000, new clones have emerged in Queensland and moved onto the rest of the country.

"They can cause very severe pneumonia. They can cause the flesh-eating disease that the public are aware of, so we will see increased numbers and increased severity and deaths," Associate Professor Christiansen said.

And she says it is not the elderly, but young people who are at risk.

"We are very concerned about that and we are concerned that there are no initiatives to work out the magnitude of the problem," she said.

Experts in Australia do not want a repeat of what happened in the United States, where 60 per cent of patients with infections entered hospital with anti-biotic resistant bugs.

Yet the only Australian state that closely monitors community-based super bugs is Western Australia.

"We will see those strains get into our hospitals and hospitalised patients, and we will see increased numbers of deaths as well, because there can be very serious disease," Associate Professor Christiansen said.

Doctors say the best way to stop the spread of community super-bugs is by washing your hands thoroughly and ensuring wounds are kept clean.

[Torsten]

washing hands has become such a low priority for so many young people. I am apalled at how many people don't wash their hands after toilet and/or before eating food. The concept of bugs being spread by poor hygiene seems to escape most gen x/y. The one thing that people need to relearn is that even when all the antibacterial lotions, germicidal sprays, and hygienic odorisers don't work anymore, these bugs are no match for a simple bit of soap and warm water.

[MindExpansion]

T, many of these staphylococcus aureus' organisms are on the skin anyway, they are also particularly common in the nose. The fact that it is often on the skin leads to problems in IDU's because they can become bacteraemic or get a vegetation on their heart valves, which can lead to problems like septic emboli. Unfortunately strains resistant to what is our last major line of defense, vancomycin, are starting to emerge. If they break out we may well have a major health care crisis. While other organisms are getting resistance, as evolution will dictate near all of them to do, the MRSA are the major causes of hospital acquired infections, and that is where most MRSA infections are found. Other immunocomprimised people such as organ recipients, AIDS patients and the elderly, or people in poorer health generally such as the homeless are also more at risk.

Why I say all this is because hygiene isn't the only problem, doctor's need to carefully select the antibiotics they prescribe and avoid overprescription because it is the drugs that are driving the resistance. However hygiene is a big part of it, particularly like I say in hospitals where people are more at risk of exposure in a vulnerable state leading to infection. And as for soap and water, it isn't used so much in hospitals anymore, except for surgeons and to clean off dirt (inc. things like blood, dirt, etc) and alcohol is used now after seeing each patient, because it is a rub on, evaps off almost instantly type thing. Very quick, not like having to wash you hands after every patient.

The whole resistant organisms thing, particularly MRSA, is likely to be a huge issue in the future, and is already a significant problem now.

Peace,

Mind

[lampy]

four friends at work are off sick with pneumonia this week. It looks like it might be in victoria.

[MindExpansion]

Pneumonia can be caused by a whole range of different organisms so without lab culture and sensitivity testing there is no way of knowing what organism is responsible.

Peace,

Mind

[AndyAmine.]

My grandfather died of antibiotic resistant staph on his heart valves after heart surgery, was really horrible seing what it did to him and so damn quickly, worst of all nothing would help even a little.

Nasty bloody stuff!

Saw a segment about this recently on 7:30 report or something, showed a couple of teenagers who picked it up from somewhere and wihtin a week had this necrotic uclers all over him leaving terrible scars.

Now his own mother has to wash her hands contantly and clean the shower and toilet with bleach after he uses it every day etc.

[MindExpansion]

Mmmmm it's scary stuff. The sort of thing that might take us all by surprise and wipe out most of the population one day, I mean that's an extreme idea but hey it's possible and there would be next to nothing anyone could do if it happened quickly enough.

Peace

[ThunderIdeal]

have your underlings maintain a ring of bonfires around your holiness while the plague sweeps past?

[devance]

I can't get the news item but the hospitals are starting to use 1 of 2 alternating antibiotics every 2 months for surgery.

My problem was not Staph but Strep at 6 years of age from a mosquito staph infection Puerto Rico, 9months in intensive care.

In 1956.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4709

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheumatic_fever

[chilli]

"super strain of the superbug"

What's next, super-duper?

MindExpansion, do you carry those kinds of facts around in your head, or do you google and then present it like that?

If even half your posts are representative of your general knowledge, you must be some kind of genius.

I agree though, doctors randomly prescribing antibiotics, especially as placebos for people with viruses etc, are fucked in the head!

[MindExpansion]

Lol @ SC. I'll take that as a compliment, cheers

Best way to avoid MRSA is to avoid being in hospital. There you have the hygiene issues of Dr's and other staff (ties are a particularly big one, just like lab coats used to be, and hand washing is another issue but that's getting better with the alcohol washes I mentioned above), combined with close proximity of a lot of people, who are sick, leaving them more vulnerable to colonisation or infection.

Peace,

Mind

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

Hey all,

I am still amazed by the amount of doctors that prescribe antibiotics when it quite obviously isn't a bacteria that is the problem.. ie colds and flu and stuff like that. It seems to be the case with some doctors that anyone that goes to visit then comes out with a prescription for antibiotics.. Don't the doctors know better than all of us that over prescription of antibiotics will eventually create a super bug that will change the inhabitation of Human kind on the earth, weather that would be a good thing or bad for the earth is debatable... enough ranting.

Anyhow i have a question for all of you and Torsen's post started me thinking about it. If you go for a pee at your average pub, nightclub or even worse concert or worse again stripclub. Wouldn't washing your hands at the communal tap and sink have way more germs than your own clean wiener?? Plus any germs on your own person would be part of your own individual "bloom" and you would have your own resistances to such things.. I know i don't have hepatitis on my own person but who know what is on the tap at sefton playhouse at 3am in the morning.

[Auxin]

Your right. Years ago i worked in a biology lab as a grunt and I walked in one day to find the head microbiologist sitting by the coffee pot horrified. What happened was he got bored out of his skull and decided to test various parts of the restroom for bacterial infestation and the toilet was the cleanest item in the restroom! The sink faucet was bad but worst of all was the door handle- it was so contaminated he couldnt work out what all was living there. It made me happy I always washed my hands before going pee (a habit resulting from an unfortunate but thankfully non-permanent incident with sulfuric acid.)

I avoid door handles as much as possible.

[MindExpansion]

Ok, this might sound gross but urine is sterile yes, and while you do have bacteria ALL over your skin, including on your penis, it is everywhere else too.

And you know, the argument of whether washing your hands in a public place is actually better than skipping the sink at all is an interesting one, the same as opening the toilet door.

Tap water has residual chlorine in it which will act as an antimicrobial agent so there is a good argument for washing your hands at a public sink, I think particularly if it is one of those press buttons, then there is no reason not to, because you press the dirty button, wash your hands and all is well.

If it is like a traditional tap, then it is a bit more of a problem, because you touch the dirty tap, clean your hands, then touch the dirty tap again. In that case, I would dare say that you may be better off not washing your hands at all.

The story is different if you weren't just taking a leak. If you do wash your hands using a conventional tap, you may want to keep a little well of soapy water in one hand, turn off the tap with the other, re-rinse your hands then dry. Pedantic yes but hey, consider the fact that everyone else comes out of the toilet after wiping their arse, and touches that tap.

As far as washing ones hands in the strip club.... those toilets are nasty as lol.

Oh and with Dr's prescribing antibiotics for a cold, who do you know that this has happened to? I'd be really surprised if a Dr just gave out antibiotics for something like a cold. I think one of the other big issues with it is that people always expect that the Dr can fix them up. So they go in with a cold, not fully understanding what that is, what causes it etc. and when the Dr. says 'Go home, rest, drink water, try and eat' they say 'Can't you give me something'. The Dr is in a corner here, they can say no, and the patient will think they are useless, or they say yes and hand over something that really does nothing because if the Dr gives them some Codral they think, what use is this guy I can buy this down the street, so they say 'here are some antibiotics' the patient goes home happy as larry thinking they will be getting fixed up. It's not a great situation for either party, but the unrealistic expectations sometimes placed on doctor's, and the doc's want for the patient to come back can lead to a Dr making a stupid decision thinking that it will not do much harm to the patient, but perhaps not thinking about the greater picture which we are talking about now.

Peace,

Mind

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

So it would be best, for me anyway, if i peed on the door handle on the way out of the strip club toilet...

[MindExpansion]

That would probably not be a bad idea actually lol, urea is fairly good at sterilising as far as I know.

Not sure how happy the other patrons would be though

Peace

[AndyAmine.]

What I find ironic is that nearly all the public toilets you go to have doors that push in to enter and pull out to exit, so you have to use the handle after washing your hands... grrrr,,I always use a piece of paper towel to turn the tap on and off or at the least the heal of my hand and use my pinky to pull the door open.

[MindExpansion]

I'm with you on the heel and pinkie thing. And also on the stupid design of the toilets in that fashion, it just makes good sense to have it open out, I suppose they are worried about it opening out and into someone, but isnt that the same as opening in into someone?

I think all toilets should have the press button taps so you don't have to touch it after you've washed your hands.

Peace,

Mind

[devance]

In U.S, the resturants, they have power toilets that has twice as much flush power of the home and hot air blowers for after whiping of the anal shit excreting hole.

A good idea.

[chilli]

Even better than the pinkie trick is waiting by the door for someone else to come in before you leave, but then you'd have to breathe near them.

There's toilets at shopping centers here where there is a double corridor instead of a door, and the taps are operated by infra red, so you don't need to touch anything at all, unless you are going to take a dump, in which case you can put toilet paper on the seat and then wash your hands and walk out without touching anything.

Or, just go in the bushes.

[MindExpansion]

Hahah, bushes, or if in the city just go in an alleyway, all is well

Edited September 8, 2008 by MindExpansion

[ThunderIdeal]

nothing suss here! just didn't want to touch the door handle.

[chilli]

nothing suss here! just didn't want to touch the door handle.

LOL!

[Ace]

And also on the stupid design of the toilets in that fashion, it just makes good sense to have it open out, I suppose they are worried about it opening out and into someone, but isnt that the same as opening in into someone?

I think thats so that it avoids the chances of people seeing into the bathroom (like people walking by - not walking in). The doors usually swing a particular way so they cover the urinals/crapper doors. Only downside is the fact that you cant really avoid using the handles on the way out (ewww).

It'd be great if every shitter had infra red sensors on the doors, taps, hand dryers, etc - that seems like the only way to really avoid nasties in that sort of place.

urine is sterile yes

Really? Didn't know that, but always figured there would be worse things to go touching.

[Auxin]

I think the whole 'urine is sterile' thing is a bit exaggerated, in an absolute ideal world it is sterile while its inside you. We, however, do not live in an ideal world and we rarely come into contact with pee while its still in someone elses bladder.

Call me paranoid but I wont be getting peed on by a girl with hepatitis if I can help it, nor will I touch anyones pee unless I really know them well.