Super Bacteria Hits Bangkok

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‘Superbugs’ hit 100 patients

BANGKOK: Siriraj Hospital said yesterday up to 100 patients had acquired infections or bacteria “colonisation” difficult to treat due to their resistance to the strongest antibiotics.

The bacteria are called MethicillinResistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) because they have become resistant to various antibiotics, including common used penicillinrelated medicines.

The treatment of MRSA patients requires evermore powerful antibiotics, sometimes combined in “cocktails”, which generally come at higher cost and with more side effects, Siriraj’s infection prevention chief Dr Somwang Danchaiwichit said.

“Resistance to an antibiotic develops soon after the medicine is introduced, but doctors across the world have been carefully monitoring the situation and have been trying to prevent such cases,” Somwang said.

Colonisation is different from infection, in that the bacteria can be present at various locations on the body without sepsis, but colonised people can infect those with lowered immunity, especially the elderly, the young and people already sick.

MRSA is likely to become more common, he said.

Other hospitals have been alerted after infections in nine patients at Siriraj did not respond to the potent antibiotic Vancomycin, he added.

Vancomycin IntermediateResistant Staphylococcus aureus infections (VISAVRSA) cannot be treated successfully with Vancomycin – the antibiotic commonly used to treat MRSA patients.

Meanwhile, lawyer Parn Prathumngern said he did not plan to sue Ramathibodi Hospital following his father’s MRSA infection, discovered after his dad underwent surgery at the hospital.

Parn said his father, 77, had been seeking treatment in other hospitals in Chanthaburi.

He would never know exactly how doctors had treated his father and so it was impossible to build a case against the hospital, he said.

“Now, I just pray that my father recovers,” he added.

Ventilation engineer Polsak Piyathat said many hospitals, offices and government agencies in Thailand had yet to install effective germicidal airconditioners.

“The substandard airconditioning systems could spread diseases,” he said.

Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Medicine’s Dr Thanwa Tansathit agreed that the hospital should install effective germfighting airconditioners inside operating theatres.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States said: “Over the past 50 years, treatment of these infections has become more difficult,” because the bacteria are resistant to potent antibiotics such as methicillin, penicillins and synthetic penicillins such as cephalosporins.

VISA and VRSA infections have developed in patients with underlying health conditions (such as diabetes and kidney disease), previous infections with MRSA, tubes going into their bodies – such as intravenous catheters – recent hospitalisations and recent exposure to vancomycin and other antibiotics, the CDC said.

--The Nation 2004-06-24