The next MRSA? Worse than MRSA? Gram-negative bacteria...

[MrsSmith]

Gram-negative bacteria are drug-resistant superbugs to watch out for

Overview
A new crop of drug-resistant superbugs is in our midst, and experts believe that they could rival the deadly superbug MRSA.


A new report from the Infectious Diseases Society of America says these superbugs are creeping onto the radar in hospitals across the country, and our ability to fight them is next to none.

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Background:  We spoke to Dr. Helene Boucher, director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Tufts Medical Center and lead author for the Infectious Diseases Society of America report on gram-negative bacteria. Here are some notes:

CNN: Give us an overview.

Dr. Helene Boucher: The big reason that we wrote report at this time is to make a point and try to get some interest in a big problem that we're facing: infections due to gram-negative organisms. MRSA, which most everyone knows about now, is gram-positive. We know about MRSA, but there has been an increase in infections caused by gram-negative bacteria, and they are resistant to many, or sometimes all, drugs. Another point: There has been a decrease in investment in antibiotics to treat these infections, for which we have limited or no treatment options. There is no antibiotic drug in Phase II or beyond, in patients.


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CNN: What would it take for this to become more like MRSA, to spread into the community?

Boucher: That's a hard question. It takes a bug being strong enough over time. It takes some change that makes it more transmissible. It takes a breakdown in infection control: not washing hands, not paying attention, etc. This bug gets a little "better" over time. With MRSA, it took football players who took whirlpools in same tub, sharing the same towels. Men having sex with men. If you put people factors and bug factors together, then you see the spread. It depends on how "fit" the bug is, how able it is to grow and replicate when gets resistant to antibiotics.

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Not a very cheerful article...

[JohnnyReb]

"Men having sex with men." ....another gift from the same crowd that gave us AIDS to worry about.

[mamacags]

My BFF's whole family has MRSA.  It isn't as big of a deal as the media makes it out to be.  There are treatments that work and 99% of the people who have it don't become headline news.  I am sure this will be another media hyped health scare like SARS, bird flu, MRSA, and ebola.

[Thor]

I don't like the way that Dr. Boucher just arbitrarily associated MSRA with certain activities. Hospitals are RIFE with MSRA, as well as many other places.

This gram negative bacteria is what we get through the abuse of antibiotics and genetically engineering bio-weapons, as well as other genetic engineering venues.