The World Today - Fears over new superbug strain = beyond hospital walls

ELEANOR HALL: Antibiotic resistant staph = infections have=20 been known to cause havoc in hospitals but infectious disease experts = are=20 warning that a variant of the bacteria is becoming more common in the=20 community.

Researchers at the Mater Children's Hospital in = Brisbane=20 have found a community-acquired strain of the bug now makes up 12 per = cent of=20 all staph infections.

Sara Everingham has our = report.

SARA=20 EVERINGHAM: In the past staph infections have been acquired in = hospitals but=20 now they're increasingly being acquired in the = community.

Associate=20 Professor Clare Nourse, a paediatric infections specialist at the = Mater=20 Children's Hospital in Brisbane has just delivered a paper on the = subject at=20 an infectious diseases conference in the Hunter Valley.

CLARE = NOURSE:=20 The first reports were in the early '90s which were sporadic reports = in=20 certain communities. But now based on some recent research at the = Mater=20 Children's Hospital we suspect that 10 to 12 per cent of children and = probably=20 adults too may have the resistant version of the bug when they develop = staph=20 aureus infections.

SARA EVERINGHAM: And this is the community=20 acquired...

CLARE NOURSE: MRSA, yes.

SARA EVERINGHAM: = MRSA is=20 methicillin-resistant staph aureus and that's a bug that's resistant = to a=20 group of antibiotics. MRSA is what's existed in hospitals and it's a = strain of=20 MRSA that's being seen increasingly in the community.

CLARE = NOURSE: It=20 has a great propensity for spread. It spreads easily, usually through=20 skin-to-skin contact. So it spreads quickly through communities with = high=20 numbers of people living in a household or through sports which = involve a lot=20 of skin-to-skin contact.

SARA EVERINGHAM: And how serious is = it, this=20 community-acquired strain?

CLARE NOURSE: Usually when children = or=20 adults develop staff aureus, staphylococcus aureus infections, they = involve=20 the skin and manifest as boils, infected mosquito bites, impetigo, = school=20 sores. You can get, patients can develop infected wounds. And usually = they're=20 mild infections but the significant fact now is that they may not = respond to=20 the traditional antibiotics we use.

However in small numbers = of cases=20 these infections can progress on and patients can develop bloodstream=20 infections, pneumonia, arthritis and life-threatening infection in a = small=20 number of cases.

SARA EVERINGHAM: There are differences between = the=20 hospital and community-acquired strains, particularly when it comes to = treatment and Clare Nourse says proper diagnosis is = essential.

CLARE=20 NOURSE: It is important now that this strain has emerged in the = community that=20 we don't assume that it will respond to the usual antibiotics we = prescribe=20 like flucloxacillin, kefalexin. It's important now that staph aureus = infection=20 before they're treated are swabbed and a sample of the material is = sent to the=20 laboratory so that we can identify exactly what the bug = is.

SARA=20 EVERINGHAM: And using the right antibiotics will also prevent the=20 community-acquired strain of the bug from becoming resistant to more=20 antibiotics.

Warren Grubb is an emeritus professor of = microbiology at=20 Curtin University.

WARREN GRUBB: In the past the strain could = be=20 treated with some of the very old antibiotics before these new = antibiotics=20 were introduced, these newer betalactans. And what we're finding is = that we=20 have isolating community strains which are acquiring resistance to = these other=20 antibiotics and that's a worry. So the worry is that they'll become=20 multi-resistant like the hospital MRSA.

SARA EVERINGHAM: And is = there=20 anything that can be done about that to prevent that?

WARREN = GRUBB: You=20 can let people know that these strains are around and what they can be = treated=20 with.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Associate Professor Clare Nourse wants = more to=20 be done to make sure the community acquired strain of MRSA is properly = diagnosed and treated.

ELEANOR HALL: Sara Everingham=20 reporting.

The World Today - Thursday, 26 March , = 2009 =20 12:46:00

Reporter: Sara Everingham