February 27, 2004

Deaths in Britain from an increasingly drug-resistant superbug are 15 times higher than they were a decade ago, according to new figures released Thursday. 

Health authorities have become increasingly worried over the past 50 years about the spread of the bacteria, called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. 

It is a superbug version of the staph germ, meaning most of the traditional antibiotics no longer work against it. 

Staph is commonly carried on the skin or in the nose of healthy people and mostly causes mild infections such as pimples and boils. 

Gradually, chiefly through improper use of antibiotics, the bacteria have become immune to many conventional antibiotics. 

Most of time, the superbug infections have been found in hospital intensive care units, burn units or surgical wards. MRSA infection usually develops in hospitalized patients who are elderly or very sick or who have an open wound or a tube going into their body. It causes pneumonia, blood poisoning and urinary tract infections. 

More rcently, it has been seen among military recruits, sports teams and particularly in prisons and jails. 

In Britain, the number of people dying directly or indirectly from that superbug has increased from 51 in 1993 to 800 in 2002, the Health Protection Agency said Thursday. 

Laboratory reports of blood poisoning caused by the superbug also increased from 210 in 1993 to 5,309 in 2002. 

Countries around the world have reported similar increases in such infections for many years. 

The agency said part of the explanation for the increase is that older people are living longer because of medical advances. 

"Although many of these infections can be prevented, they cannot be totally eradicated as they are the price we pay for advances in medical treatments, which often allow patients who are severely sick and vulnerable to infection to survive," said Dr Georgia Duckworth, an expert on the superbug with the health agency. 

Some strains of staph have also acquired resistance to vancomycin, a drug considered the "last line of defense" when all other antibiotics have failed. 

Although new antibiotics are constantly being developed, some experts fear it is only a matter of time until virtually every drug is useless. 

Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.