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