‘A Real Disaster’: Surge in the spread of deadly superbug in NZ

Submitted by the Zombie Democracy Blog

48 New Zealanders test positive to carrying CPE superbug 

“Doctors are warning a powerful superbug could become deadly if it continues to spread in New Zealand at its present rate.

“So far this year, 48 New Zealanders have tested positive to carrying the bacteria known as carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae (CPE), up from 33 people last year. It was found in just 30 people in the six years from 2009 to 2014.

“CPE are bacteria that produce an enzyme that deactivates a powerful group of antibiotics called carbapenems, meaning they are difficult to treat.

“In most cases, the bug sits in the body, usually the bowel or gut, and causes no harm. But if it gets the bloodstream or urine it can be life threatening.”
Read more. . .

New Zealand’s cases of “flesh-eating” disease have surged by 300 percent since 1990

The astronomical rise in the necrotising fasciitis in New Zealand was revealed to scientists at the UK Health Protection Agency conference in Warwick, England.

The International Journal of Infectious Diseases has published a paper by Dr Dilip Das and others who identified necrotising fasciitis and cellulitis as emerging major health problems in New Zealand.

Late diagnosed necrotizing fasciitis in a 43-year-old male. Preoperative photograph on the day of admission. Extensive erythema and necrosis of the left leg. Source: Cases Journal. Image may be subject to copyright.

Das says the reasons for the meteoric rise in the number of NZ cases remain a mystery, “but the researchers had ruled out changes made in 2004 to the way diseases were recorded,” a report said.

See also: Viruses

Microorganisms with a threat level of SERIOUS. Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States 2013. Source: CDC

Related Links

• Global Health Alert  Bulletin #30 – New Zealand cases of “flesh-eating” disease have surged by 300 percent
• NZ Sees Surge in Flesh-Eating Disease Cases
• New super superbug surpasses MRSA infection rates in community hospitals
• “Flesh Eating Bacteria” Linked to NSAIDs
• Should We Be Afraid of MRSA?
• MRSA: ACT II
• Young dad Matthew Ramsay has undergone seven surgeries, including the amputation of four toes

Additional Links

• Superbugs Invasion Has Begun

• [First Phase of] Superbug Outbreak Could Kill 80,000 —UK Govt

• Double-Edged Swords: Man-Engineered Strains of Infectious Microbes 2

• FIRE-EARTH Alert: C. auris – Update 2
• Nature’s Deadly Arsenal of Diseases: Drug-Resistant Microbes 2 — GEID 052102
• Drug-Resistant ‘Japanese Fungus’ Spreads to 200 Patients in 55 UK Hospitals

• FIRE-EARTH Alert: Outbreak of Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella Heidelberg Infections

• Sudden worldwide increase in antibiotic-resistant bacterium

Gonorrhea: First superbug strain found

“Superbug” strain of gonorrhea has been discovered by Sweden – Japan researchers

The strain is said to be resistant to all the common antibiotics

The superbug strain was discovered by a Swedish scientist Magnus Unemo, who received the samples from his colleagues in Kyoto, Japan.

The strain is said to be extremely resistant to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics—the only antibiotics still effective in treating gonorrhea.

He described the discovery as “alarming” and “predictable.”

“Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it,” he said.

The fact that the new strain had been found in Japan also follows an alarming pattern, he told reporters.

“Japan has historically been the place for the first emergence and subsequent global spread of different types of resistance in gonorrhea,” he said.

In the past few years trends of gonorrhea drug resistance have emerged in Australia, China, Hong Kong and other Asian countries.

Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is a common sexually-transmitted disease (STD), caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

An electron micrograph of gonorrhea bacteria. Image courtesy http://women.webmd.com/slideshow-pelvic-pain-causes

The infection is readily transmitted when an infected person has ANY type of sex. The infection is spread by contact with the mouth, vagina, penis, or anus.

This was a newborn with gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum caused by a maternally transmitted gonococcal infection.Unless preventative measures are taken, it is estimated that gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum will develop in 28% of infants born to women with gonorrhea. It affects the corneal epithelium causing microbial keratitis, ulceration and perforation. Source: CDC/J. Pledger. Click image to enlarge

The lesion on this patient’s left hand was due to the systemic dissemination of the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria. Though sexually transmitted, and involving the urogenital tract initially, a Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterial infection can become disseminated systemically, manifesting itself as a cutaneous erythematous lesion anywhere on the body. Source: CDC/Dr. S. E. Thompson, VDCD./J. Pledger

Gonorrhea—Rates, United States, 1941–2009

Reported Gonorrhea rates in the United States, 1941–2009. Source: CDC 

Gonorrhea—Rates by State, United States and Outlying Areas, 2009

The total rate of gonorrhea for the United States and outlying areas (Guam, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands) was 97.8 per 100,000 population. Source: CDC

What is gonorrhea?

[Sourced from CDC] Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Gonorrhea is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a bacterium that can grow and multiply easily in the warm, moist areas of the reproductive tract, including the cervix (opening to the womb), uterus (womb), and fallopian tubes (egg canals) in women, and in the urethra (urine canal) in women and men. The bacterium can also grow in the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus.

Why Treat the Gonorrhea?

Gonorrhea can spread to the blood or joints. This condition can be life threatening. In addition, people with gonorrhea can more easily contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV-infected people with gonorrhea can transmit HIV more easily to someone else than if they did not have gonorrhea.

Gonorrhea can affect the anus, eyes, mouth, genitals, or throat.

In men, gonorrhea can cause epididymitis, a painful condition of the ducts attached to the testicles that may lead to infertility if left untreated.

In women, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) can lead to serious consequences including infertility.

PID occurs when certain bacteria, such as chlamydia or gonorrhea, move upward from a woman’s vagina or cervix (opening to the uterus) into her reproductive organs.

About 750,000 women each year in the United States develop PID.

What Next?

• A major challenge to monitoring emerging antimicrobial resistance of N. gonorrhoeae is the substantial decline in capability of laboratories to perform essential gonorrhea culture techniques required for antibiotic susceptibility testing. This decline results from an increased use of newer non-culture-based laboratory technology, such as a diagnostic test called the Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT). Currently, there is no reliable technology that allows for antibiotic susceptibility testing from non-culture specimens. Increased laboratory culture capacity is needed. ~CDC

Global Scope

About 340 million new cases of STD including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis are reported each year among the 15 to 49 age group, World Health Organization estimates.

Related Links

• Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea (ARG)
• NZ women are world’s most promiscuous