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USA
Today
Deadly
'superbugs' invade U.S. health care
facilities
A
new family of antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
known as CRE, is raising concerns across the medical community because
of its
ability to cause infections that defy even the strongest antibiotics.
The
antibiotic resistance is spread by mobile pieces of DNA that can move
between
different species of bacteria, creating new, drug-defying bugs.
12:34PM
EST November 29. 2012 -
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- The doctors tried one antibiotic after another,
racing
to stop the infection as it tore through the man's body, but nothing
worked.
In
a matter of days after the middle-aged
patient arrived at University of Virginia Medical Center, the stubborn
bacteria
in his blood had fought off even what doctors consider "drugs of last
resort."
"It
was very alarming; it was the first
time we'd seen that kind of resistance," says Amy Mathers, one of the
hospital's infectious-disease specialists. "We didn't know what to
offer
the patient."
The
man died three months later, but the
bacteria wasn't done. In the months that followed, it struck again and
again in
the same hospital, in various forms, as doctors raced to decipher the
secret to
its spread.
The
superbug that hit UVA four years ago -- and
remains a threat -- belongs to a once-obscure family of drug-resistant
bacteria
that has stalked U.S. hospitals and nursing homes for over a decade.
Now, it's
attacking in hundreds of those institutions, a USA TODAY examination
shows, and
it's a fight the medical community is not well positioned to win…
Read
the rest of the article at USA Today
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