MRSA [methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus ]

DRUG RESISTANT germs spreading through Britain's Hospitals are being blamed for the
'for the deaths of dozens of patients Doctors, are, alarmed because because, the germ is resistant to virtually all common antibiotics.. It has been identified in at least 32 London hospitals, and out",outbreaks have occurred occurred in Nottinghamshire,; Yorkshire, and East Anglia."
Infected hospitals had to close wards and intensive care units and isolate patients' who are carriers
Dr. Richard Smith assistant editor of the "British. Medical Journal said the potential is frightening the Bacteria are' only susceptible to one antibiotic , vancomycin and could eventually become resistant to that too, "
The strain the methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus , 'bacteria I (MRSA), known, as
Super Staph " was First identified in an Essex hospital in 1981 . Patients particularly at risk include the, elder]y , those with open wounds, and people undergoing transplant, surgery, heart operations and kidney dialysis . Complications caused by the infection are believed to have contributed to, at, least 30 deaths since, April.
Dr Jean Bradley, chairman of working party, examining, the problem in the North East Thames Region said “ It , has caused deaths in people who were basically well before they came into hospital . They have had an operation and died from the infection. The germ which usually lives harmlessly or up the nose is easily spread from patient to patient on the hands of medical or nursing staff
Although it is the same bacteria that often causes wounds to become infected , the dangerous , antibiotic resistant strain can lead to fatal blood poisoning as it fails to respond to ordinary treatment
Scientists have' been warning for decades that over use of antibiotics could lead , to the emergence of resistant strains
A similar epidemic has been wreaking havoc in hospitals in Eastern Australia since the Iate, 1970s and has caused the deaths of hundreds of patients"..One new London hospital the Homerton in' Hackney was` forced to set aside an entire ward for MRSA infected when it opened in July .
Dr. Ken Grant district general manager for the City and. Hackney Health Authority said there was a significant increase in the number of people identified as carriers in. June and July
. We have been screening patients as they come in and, put carriers in a separate ward in the hope of 'eradicating. the infection. Staff with. the bacteria have, been given anti microbial shampoo and nasal spray' " Basically problems arise when: staff and patients move from one hospital to another.
Virtually all the major London. hospitals have. 'been 'affected, greatly adding to the cost of treatment. Guidelines for the control of outbreak . have been . drawn ' up , by a working party of the Hospital Infection Society ,and the British Society for. Antimicrobial, Chemotherapy. .Its report warns:' Effective' treatment of, serious infections has often proved difficult. The antimicrobial agents available are , often potentially . toxic, limited in number, difficult to administer and expensive . Isolation facilities are essential 'once an outbreak, ha& occurred.' The cost of an epidemic of MRSA is high. and the onus should be on prevention rather than cure.
Dr Paul Noone, consultant microbiologist at, the. Royal. Free Hospital, North London,, said : "Hand washing` is, probably ably the single most important step to take. But nurses are having to work under intense pressure because of the cuts . Where people are overworked, these hygiene masures tend to go. . The germ flourishes in hospitals because of the widespread. use. of antibiotics, Which kill' competing bacteria and allow MRSA to, get a ..foothold .
..,Experts have: blamed the indiscriminate use of antibiotics for the, emergence, of resistant., strains of bacteria, a phenomenon,, first noticed. In the 1950s when some types of infection that could no longer be treated" with penicillin were, identified.
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There are a number of different strains of. Super Staph and all are vulnerable to treatment '. with vancomycin. Although other rarely used antibiotics can kill individual strains, treatment depends on rapid identification .but doctors warn that all the remaining treatments are expensive and potentially toxic. They fear that if the bacteria also becomes resistant to vancomycm, medicine could be put back 50 years to the days when even minor infections could kill.
.Dr Ken Harvey., director of. microbiology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia,.. where a particularly virulent strain of MRSA bacteria swept through the wards, said recently: 'We may, look back at the antibiotic era as just a passing . phase in the history of medicine, an era in which a great , natural resource was squandered and where the bugs proved smarter than the scientists
He is especially critical of 'doctors who constantly use broad spectrum .antibiotics an indiscriminate drug which kills a wide range. of bugs in circumstances where they are unnecessary.
“ Broad spectrum, antibiotics ,are the refuge of the diagnostically 'destitute”. he said.
The British Medical Journal is shortly to publish advice to GPs and hospitals on the best, way to control outbreaks of MRSA.

One thing that has worried me of recent years is the yawning chasm between knowledge and understanding . Science and particularly medical science , is crammed to the eyebrows with knowledge but a tad short of understanding . The recently completed Human Genome project is an instance . We KNOW all the various amino acids etc that make up a human being . Our understanding of that knowledge is pretty limited . We cannot put all these elements together and produce a bit of organic matter –or a human being . This KNOWLEDGE tells us nothing about the experience of being human – about the Psyche , emotions , stress , anger etc .
If like orthodox medical science you wish to treat the human body as an assembly of parts that has no relation to a greater whole then you can cheerfully transplant various organs . The price that must be paid is suppression of the immune system that tries to reject the transplant. This means that you deal with a problem but condemn the patient to death as immune system suppression is a form of AIDS . Interesting to note that heart transplants are now rare as research is directed towards mechanical hearts or breeding pigs with compatible organs that can be transplanted without rejection by the individual . Good word that , individual , means that we cannot be treated as if we were churned out by a sausage machine !!. That homeopathy makes more sense than pharmaceuticals !! .

Preparing new antibiotics seems to be the battle lost in advance as bugs have on their side incredible numbers, invisibility and Darwin (natural selection).
ONLY the patient's own defences always work!
Thanks for the article.

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Astra<br /><br />"Difficult cases take some time to be cured,<br />impossible - a little longer."