MRSA (and Something Worse)

MRSA (or drug resistant staph), is a difficult to treat infection. But as difficult as MRSA is, I came across this article in the New York Times that describes something even worse:

1).    Gram-negative Bacteria Far Worse than MRSA. (article here). A very interesting article, I recommend it highly to everyone. Here is a portion:

… Acinetobacter baumannii, or the Gram-negative germ is one of a category of bacteria that by some estimates are already killing tens of thousands of hospital patients each year. While the organisms do not receive as much attention as the one known as MRSA — for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — some infectious-disease specialists say they could emerge as a bigger threat.

That is because there are several drugs, including some approved in the last few years, that can treat MRSA. But for a combination of business reasons and scientific challenges, the pharmaceuticals industry is pursuing very few drugs for Acinetobacter and other organisms of its type, known as Gram-negative bacteria. Meanwhile, the germs are evolving and becoming ever more immune to existing antibiotics…

"In many respects it's far worse than MRSA," said Dr. Louis B. Rice, an infectious-disease specialist at the Louis Stokes Cleveland V.A. Medical Center and at Case Western Reserve University. "There are strains out there, and they are becoming more and more common, that are resistant to virtually every antibiotic we have."

    Tom: This is scary stuff. And the NY Times' charge that the pharmaceutical industry is not pursuing treatments for Gram-negative's treatment looks to be a failure of the system.

2).    New Book – SuperBug, the Fatal Menace of MRSA. Author Mary McKenna has written a new book that will be published later this month. Here is a portion from the book, (which can be found here):

LURKING in our homes, hospitals, schools, and farms is a terrifying pathogen that is evolving faster than the medical community can track it or drug developers can create antibiotics to quell it. That pathogen is MRSA—methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aureus—and Superbug is the first book to tell the story of its shocking spread and the alarming danger it poses to us all.Doctors long thought that MRSA was confined to hospitals and clinics, infecting almost exclusively those who were either already ill or old. But through remarkable reporting, including hundreds of interviews with the leading researchers and doctors tracking the deadly bacterium, acclaimed science journalist Maryn McKenna reveals the hidden history of MRSA's relentless advance—how it has overwhelmed hospitals, assaulted families, and infiltrated agriculture and livestock, moving inexorably into the food chain. Taking readers into the medical centers where frustrated physicians must discard drug after drug as they struggle to keep patients alive, she discloses an explosion of cases that demonstrate how MRSA is growing more virulent, while evolving resistance to antibiotics with astonishing speed. It may infect us at any time, no matter how healthy we are; it is carried by a stunning number of our household pets; and it has been detected in food animals from cows to chickens to pigs.

Ms. McKenna called me up last year to interview me, as someone who has had several bouts of MRSA, for her book (nothing I said is being used), and so she was gracious enough to let me know about the release of her upcoming book. It looks like it is going to receive some major national attention.