X-Message-Number: 5621
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 11:33:06 +0100
From: John de Rivaz <>
Subject: Lethal Bacteria

                     Lethal Bacteria Spreading Out of
                             Control Through 
                         Britain's Hospitals - BBC

On 15 January the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama 
revealed to the nation a disaster that threatens the collapse of Britain's 
hospital service. Antibiotic resistant bacteria had appeared in one 
hospital and spread to many other hospitals before they were noticed.

They are also in the public domain, but rarely infect people unless they 
suffer a major trauma, such as surgery or invasive diagnosis. There is no 
point in closing and disinfecting a hospital because the bacteria would 
soon return on the flesh of patients or visitors.

The disaster, says the programme, has put surgery back into the days before 
antibiotics were available.

The programme started with a motorcyclist who had a non-fatal injury 
accident - a simple leg fracture - which normally could have been easily 
treated by a modern hospital. Then, while in hospital, he caught an 
infection. But this time the antibiotics didn't work. And the patient died.

The bacteria that killed this man is called MRSA, the antibiotic resistant 
strain of staphloccocus aureus found mainly in hospitals. It lives 
harmlessly on the skin, but if it gets in the bloodstream it kills. Some 
10,000 people have been affected by this modern plague. Professor Gary 
French, of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, said that half the hospitals in 
the country have been affected by MRSA. Because this particular epidemic 
has such a large mass, many authorities think it is now out of control.

Dr Rosamon Cox, of Kettering General Hospital, said that MRSA can sit on 
the flesh of many people without causing any symptoms at all, and can 
spread silently before it affects vulnerable people, such as an old lady 
who had a "routine" amputation.

Patient Janice Crick relates how she was contaminated with the disease when 
she had a baby in hospital. Fortunately she survived, but her quality of 
life is now reduced. MRSA16 can easily enter the body through catheters or 
tubes. A hip replacement patient had an infected wound which resulted in 
the whole joint being amputated.

Control is virtually impossible, and MRSA is not a notifiable disease. And 
now the National Health Service psuedo-market is making hospitals keep 
quiet about the existence of the disease because of the effects on funding.

A woman who was contaminated with MRSA in hospital found that the social 
services would not care for her when she came out of hospital - MRSA is 
much easier to catch than AIDS! She was also a danger to others and became 
"an untouchable" in her own home.

Old people's homes and residential centres are now all vulnerable to 
colonisation, and occasionally infection of residents and staff. 

MRSA doesn't only affect the old. Another young man had a fall damaging his 
foot. Hospital treatment resulted in MRSA contamination, which has ruined 
his whole life. He said he is now treated like a leper.

Another bacteria is called VRE - Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus. It 
usually lives harmlessly in our intestines, but set loose by surgery into 
the bloodstream of a weakened patient it can become a fast and deadly 
killer.

Bacteria breed so fast that they can easily out-evolve chemical treatments. 
It takes 20 years for a human generation, Dr Michael Zeckel of Eil Lilley 
Research Laboratories said, whereas in a matter of 30 minutes one bacterium 
can become two. In 24 hours they will have gone through 48 generations. 48 
generations of humans take thousands of years.

Dr Zeckel said we have gone back to the situation we had in the 1930s where 
people were dying within 48 hours of being infected. The profession will be 
left only with surgery to remove limbs or organs as the only last ditch 
attempt for a cure. It is likely to be ineffective as new infections are 
introduced by it.

My comment is that Nanotechnology would probably provide a more effective 
way of exterminating bacteria, and no amount of evolution would get round 
it. However the human race may not be allowed to survive long enough to 
develop it. A global epidemic may not kill everyone, because once mass 
transit systems fail the diseases will be isolated. But an isolated post 
technological society, possibly without even electricity, will never 
develop Nanotechnology.
-- 
Sincerely,     ****************************************       
               * Publisher of        Longevity Report *
John de Rivaz  *                     Fractal Report   *
               *          details on request          *
               ****************************************
**** What is the point of life if it ends in death? ****


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5621