Phoenix-area hospitals fight highly toxic 'supergerm

Maricopa County health officials have confirmed that a relatively new, extremely toxic strain of bacteria has been found in hospitals and other health-care facilities in the Valley.
The germ, known as Clostridium difficile, has long plagued the medical profession and is blamed for an increasing amount of illness in patients. But this is the first time the new strain, known in medical circles as "NAP1," is believed to have been linked to patient illness and deaths in Arizona, health officials said. It carries at least 20 times as much toxin as the original strain. According to the county, at least 10 patients have fallen severely ill from this new type of C. diff since early March. Two of those who were infected have died, though the germ has not been named conclusively as the cause of death. All the patients were elderly and suffered from health problems. "Assuming this continues to evolve, it is going to be a real pain for our healthcare communities," said Dr. Bob England, director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health. Like other "supergerms," all strains of C. diff are resistant to powerful antibiotics, and the infection is difficult and expensive to treat. The germ causes pronounced diarrhea and, in severe cases, can lead to inflammation of the colon, which can be fatal. Healthy and younger people usually don't get C. diff. Most cases occur in health -care facilities, and those represent only a small fraction of the tens of millions of admissions to U.S. hospitals and nursing homes every year. But the number of cases has risen sharply over the past decade, to nearly 500,000 in 2007, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Arizona Republic first learned of an ongoing C. diff outbreak last month after filing a state Public Records Law request to obtain a health alert issued by the Arizona Department of Health Services. Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/ articles/2010/05/29/20100529phoenix-hospitals-fightsupergerm.html#ixzz3Ml0wLjb

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