BRITAIN/INTERNATIONAL: Doctors Warned of Deadly New MRSA Superbug

By JOHN VON RADOWITZ

FRIGHTENING new forms of the MRSA superbug are emerging that attack the immune system, are highly infectious and can kill patients by destroying lung tissue, doctors warn today.

The bacteria spread through the community and are not confined to hospitals like most MRSA strains.

They produce a toxin called Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL) which kills white blood cells, an essential part of the body’s immune system defences.

Infection by one of the deadly strains could easily be overlooked because the initial symptoms appear relatively harmless.

By the time a correct diagnosis is made it might be too late to save the patient, a meeting of experts was told.

Dr Marina Morgan, from the Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation NHS Trust, said: “The new community-associated MRSA strains appear to be more virulent and more easily spread between people.

“These community-associated versions have been found in people with few, if any, reasons to have MRSA. Typically they haven’t recently been in hospital, or are not looking after or living with people with MRSA.”

MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococ-cus aureus, is a common bug carried by millions of people that has mutated to become immune to many antibiotics. If it gets into the bloodstream it can kill.

Already a major problem in hospitals, MRSA is now starting to spread to the wider population. Community MRSA is now well established in America, where it is a major cause of childhood infection.

Doctors are worried about the same pattern being repeated in Britain. The new strains appear to attach themselves to damaged skin and airways more easily than hospital MRSA, and they multiply faster.

The warnings will be spelled out today at the Federation of Infection Societies Conference at the University of Cardiff.

Dr Morgan said: “Although the resistant strain is not yet widespread in the UK, we have seen increasing numbers of PVL-toxin producing Staphylococcus aureus infections, mainly presenting with recurrent boils and abscesses.

“This excessive production of white cells to compensate for those killed by the PVL toxin leads to recurrent severe boils and abscesses. The MRSA is easily spread by close contact, such as in families, nurseries and athletic teams.”

A minority of patients carrying the PVL-producing bugs could suffer severe infections such as septicaemia blood poisoning or a lethal form of pneumonia which literally destroys lung tissue, she told the meeting.

“With this type of necrotising PVL pneumonia, even with the strongest antibiotics, more than 60% of otherwise healthy young and fit people will die,” Dr Morgan added.

“These infections are easily missed clinically, where they can be dismissed as just recurrent boils and overlooked until a serious infection develops. Then, with severe invasive infections like pneumonia, early diagnosis is vital as treatment with the correct antibiotics and massive doses of immunoglobulin can save children’s lives.”

The meeting also heard of another threat from various bacteria armed with enzymes that destroy a whole family of common antibiotics, including penicillins and ceph-alosporins.

The bugs, which include a strain of E.coli, are spreading into nursing homes and communities throughout Europe.

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