mazzetta

La notizia non è tanto la diffusione dell'MRSA (methicyllin resistent stafilococcus aureus), che nasce poco dopo l'introduzione della meticillina (negli anni '60) quanto il sempre più comune riscontro di questo batterio nelle infezioni "comunitarie" (e non "nosocomiali", cioè a insorgenza ospedaliera).

La minaccia delle resistenze farmacologiche (di per sè, i batteri sono bestie molto più cattive dei virus; la loro pericolosità è contenuta solo dall'efficacia degli antibiotici) si prospetta dagli anni '80. Per il momento, l'industria è stata in grado di rispondere, ma la situazione potrebbe precipitare. Il problema và affrontato con misure mirate e efficaci di sanità pubblica, nei termini di prevenzione del contagio e soprattutto evitamento dell'abuso di antibiotici.

Grazie per le precisazioni :D

Death toll from third superbug soars


Pseudomonas infection is resistant to hospital cleaning - and antibiotics are proving ineffective

Denis Campbell, health correspondent
Sunday November 18, 2007
The Observer

Health workers are struggling to control a surge in an 'untreatable' hospital-acquired infection that is estimated to be killing hundreds of patients a year. The number of cases of Pseudomonas rose by 41 per cent from 2,605 in 2002 to 3,663 last year, according to Health Protection Agency figures.

Cleaning agents that hospitals rely on to kill bacteria are proving inadequate, while most antibiotics that usually help patients repel infections are ineffective. It often contaminates water and moisture, so is a particular problem in breathing equipment, intravenous lines and catheters. One child cancer patient caught it when his lips were sprinkled with holy water at a Leeds hospital.

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The bug is similar to the potentially fatal MRSA and C difficile infections. MRSA was cited as a cause of death in 1,629 people in England and Wales in 2005, up from 734 in 2001. C difficile was given as the reason for the death of 3,807 people in 2005, compared with 1,214 people in 2001.

There are no official statistics on the number of deaths from Pseudomonas, but Professor Mark Enright, an expert on healthcare-acquired infections at Imperial College London, estimates that it kills 'at least hundreds a year', especially those who get blood poisoning as a result. Previous studies have shown that those who develop septicaemia related to Pseudomonas have only a 20 per cent chance of survival.

People who have had surgery, who are on a ventilator in an intensive care unit or who have a condition such as cancer or HIV that reduces their body's immunity, are especially vulnerable. Some who have had it but survived have lost a limb, gone blind in one eye or suffered some other lasting damage to their body.

Alfred Nell almost died during an outbreak of Pseudomonas at Guy's Hospital in London in late 2005 that killed one woman and infected him and 17 other patients when they were receiving treatment in the urological surgery department. He has now asked Edwina Rawson, a medical negligence solicitor at London lawyers Charles Russell, to investigate if he can sue for damages.

A senior doctor at the hospital has told Nell, a 40-year-old plumber from Luton, that the near-fatal blood poisoning that he developed had been started by Pseudomonas carried on a microscope that doctors put inside him in November 2005 when they were removing a stent inserted during an earlier kidney stones operation. He ended up in hospital for seven weeks undergoing treatment.

'I believe that Guy's hospital nearly killed me because of them not cleaning their instruments properly', said Nell. 'The microscope was shoved into people before me, was shoved into me and was then shoved into other people after me. They should clean it every time.' He has received no letter of apology.

Nell added that he was 'angry because the hospital has taken away my passions, like my ability to play sport and do certain recreations with my son and daughter. And I feel quite frustrated because they haven't admitted to their liability.' He says that he has suffered long-term damage to his left kidney as a result of getting Pseudomonas which means he can only drive short distances and not stand for more than 20 minutes without suffering pain.

'The letters the hospital sent me about my Pseudomonas referred to it as "a urine infection". I would call it a near-death experience. I remember the doctors buzzing around my bed talking about how I was going to lose limbs and they also told my wife, Veronica, at one point that I was going to die,' said Nell.

A spokeswoman for Guy's said: 'An urgent investigation identified the most likely cause to be a faulty washer which was immediately removed from service and subsequently renovated and upgraded prior to the operating theatre reopening.' The trust says it continues to review its decontamination processes.

Rawson said: 'It's good that cases of MRSA are decreasing. But it's a complete nonsense if other deadly bacteria such as Pseudomonas are being allowed to affect more and more people.' She called on the reporting of Pseudomonas to be made mandatory for hospitals in order for the true scale of the problem to emerge.