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  When Drugs Don't Work May 18, 2008  Watch our reportReporter: Jane Hansen 16 year old Reis Gray was a healthy Sydney teenager who had what everyone thought was a bad dose of the flu. He was treated with antibiotics for a suspected lung infection, but within days he was on life support, a victim of a newly evolved superbug. He died from necrotising pneumonia; his lungs were eaten by a drug resistant superbug, called MRSA. "The weekend before he just had a sniffily nose" Reis' mother Julia Gray says, still shocked by the speed of her sons decline. For decades we have known about the existence of MRSA, or methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. The so called superbug evolved in hospitals. It resists the majority of antibiotics like penicillin and methicillin posing a serious health risk to the sick and the weak. The resistant bacteria kills around 2000 hospital patients a year, but now a new strain of MRSA has emerged outside the hospital environment. It has spread to the wider community with devastating results. Killing people like Reis Gray. Community acquired MRSA or CA-MRSA is resistant to most antibiotics yet it did not escape from hospitals, this bug has evolved separately, with various strains throughout the world. There are American strains, European strains and here in Australia, Western Australian, Queensland and South West Pacific Strains. The latter two are becoming increasingly common along the Eastern seaboard with up to 10% of all staph infections now identified as CA-MRSA Dr Graeme Nimmo, director of Microbiology for Pathology Queensland monitored the prevalence of community acquired strains of MRSA in Queensland public hospital outpatients and reported a 700% increase from 2000 to 2007. 'This is an epidemic' he says. Of most concern is the virulence of the community strains. Nothing like this has been seen before. Both the Queensland and South West Pacific strain have a toxin called 'pvl' which can destroy white blood cells causing necrotising, or flesh eating infections of the skin, bone and lungs. Professor Peter Collignon, infectious diseases expert from Canberra Hospital says it's time science looked at developing a vaccine to combat the bug that drugs no longer affect. "This bug not only has a bullet proof vest, but in terms of its virulence, it now has an exorcet missile attached as well" Professor Collignon says of the 'pvl' toxin attached to CA-MRSA. "I think we need to be scared" he concluded. |
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