- LONDON (Rueters) - Medical experts called Friday for special precautions after
Japanese doctors identified new strains of a superbug with some resistance
to the most potent antibiotic.
-
- Dr. Keiichi Hiramatsu and colleagues
at Jutendo University in Tokyo found a strain of the common infection staphylococcus
aureus earlier this year -- known by its initials as VRSA -- that did not
respond to vancomycin, the last line of defense against infection.
-
- In their latest research, reported in
The Lancet medical journal, they uncovered more strains of the organism
that showed variable resistance to the drug.
-
- "This is a very big warning,"
Dr. Soad Tabaqchali, a microbiologist at St. Bartholomew's & Royal
London School of Medicine and Dentistry, told Reuters.
-
- "If this organism spreads, we may
find some patients for whom the only antibiotics available are ineffective."
-
- Strains of the so-called MRSA bacteria
that are resistant to the antibiotic methicillin have been found around
the world since the late 1970s, but doctors have always had another weapon
-- vancomycin.
-
- The discovery of the new strains of VRSA
means the new superbug might eventually be untreatable.
-
- Hiramatsu and his team said there is
"a need for special precaution to limit the spread of VRSA strains,"
a plea repeated by Tabaqchali.
-
- "More has to be done regarding detection,
infection control and antibiotic policies," she said. "We need
to reduce usage of these very important antibiotics."
-
-
- Copyright ©1997 Nando.net
|