‘Virtually Untreatable’ Tuberculosis Poses Global Threat

TB already kills 1.4 million people, 16 pct of sick cases each year

A rise in “virtually untreatable” tuberculosis poses a global threat, according to an international group of doctors and researchers, and plans to deal with the deadly disease are failing.

The cases of  drug resistance TB are exponentially rising, while many first-choice antibiotics are no longer effective against several strains of the TB bacterium.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Under a high magnification of 15549x, this colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicted some of the ultrastructural details seen in the cell wall configuration of a number of Gram-positive Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. As an obligate aerobic organism M. tuberculosis can only survive in an environment containing oxygen. This bacterium ranges in length between 2 – 4 microns, and a width between 0.2 – 0.5 microns. TB bacteria become active, and begin to multiply, if the immune system can’t stop them from growing. The bacteria attack the body and destroy tissue. If in the lungs, the bacteria can actually create a hole in the lung tissue. Some people develop active TB disease soon after becoming infected, before their immune system can fight off the bacteria. Other people may get sick later, when their immune system becomes weak for another reason.Babies and young children often have weak immune systems. People infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, have very weak immune systems. Other people can have weak immune systems, too, especially people with any of these conditions: substance abuse; diabetes mellitus; silicosis; cancer of the head or neck; leukemia or Hodgkin’s disease; severe kidney disease; low body weight; certain medical treatments (such as corticosteroid treatment or organ transplants); specialized treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, or Crohn’s disease. Source: CDC/ Dr. Ray Butler

In parts of central Asia and eastern Europe about a third of all TB cases are multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB). Globally, MDR-TB cases skyrocketed from 12,000 in 2005 to as many as 300,000 in 2011.  Now an even more aggressive strain of TB, called extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is resistant to even more types of antibiotics has been detected across 84 countries, according to a report published in Lancet Medical Journal.

Tuberculosis bacteria.  Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, the main cause of human tuberculosis. These are Gram-positive rod-shaped bacteria. If a bacterium enters the lungs in a droplet coughed or sneezed by an infected person, it multiplies to form a localized bacterial colony (primary tubercle). Normally the tubercle is destroyed by the immune system. In a few cases, however, the bacteria then either spread through the lymphatic system to other parts of the body, which can be fatal, or lie dormant, only becoming active again many years later. Treatment is with antibiotics. Magnification unknown. Source: Lancet Medical Journal.

Under a magnification of 3841X, this scanning electron micrograph SEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphologic details exhibited by a number of Gram-positive bacilli, or “rod-shaped”, Mycobacterium fortuitum bacteria. M. fortuitum is classified as a “rapidly-growing” Mycobacterium, due to the fact that it can be grown on laboratory culture medium in less than 7 days. As a human pathogen, this organism has been determined to be the cause of skin infections, including furunculosis, i.e., boils, on the legs of people receiving pedicures in nail salons. With drinking water as their source, in a 72 hour period, these organisms created a biofilm upon a submerged polycarbonate surface, from which they were subsequently harvested. As a nontuberculous bacterium (NTB), M. fortuitum is a member of the same genus as its cousin Mycobacterium tuberculosis, however, it is classified outside the M. tuberculosis complex. Credit: CDC/ Margaret M. Williams; Janice Haney Carr

TB Symptoms (CDC)

Symptoms of TB disease include:

• Bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer
• Pain in the chest
• Coughing up blood or sputum
• Weakness or fatigue
• Weight loss
• No appetite
• Chills
• Fever
• Sweating at night

Latent TB Infection and TB Disease

Not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. As a result, two TB-related conditions exist: latent TB infection and TB disease. Latent TB Infection TB bacteria can live in the body without making you sick. This is called latent TB infection. In most people who breathe in TB bacteria and become infected, the body is able to fight the bacteria to stop them from growing. People with latent TB infection do not feel sick and do not have any symptoms. People with latent TB infection are not infectious and cannot spread TB bacteria to others. However, if TB bacteria become active in the body and multiply, the person will go from having latent TB infection to being sick with TB disease. Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain.  If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal.

How TB Spreads

TB is spread through the air from one person to another.  The TB bacteria are put into the air when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, speaks, or sings.  People nearby may breathe in these bacteria and become infected.

The danger posed by growing resistance to antibiotics is ‘as big a risk as terrorism,’ the UK medical chief, Professor Sally Davies has warned, describing the threat as a “ticking time bomb.” See video.

‘Superbug Humor’

‘Superbug Humor: First, the Good News!’ Submitted by a reader.

TB and other Superbug Related Links

• TDR-TB Outbreak in India January 17, 2012

• Mysterious Outbreak of E. coli in 6 States June 9, 2012

• Superbugs Invasion Has Begun Posted on May 19, 2012
• Legionella Outbreak in Scotland: 1 Dead, 16 Critical Posted on June 6, 2012
• States of Emergency Declared in Ontario Towns Posted on May 29, 2012
• The second reported victim of necrotizing fasciitis bacteria   Posted on May 17, 2012

• Gonorrhea: First superbug strain found Posted on July 12, 2011
• Resurgence of C. difficile in Ontario, Canada Posted on July 4, 2011
• New superbug spreading from India Posted on August 11, 2010
• Global Health Alert: New Zealand MRSA Infections Up 3500 pct March 15, 2009
• “Flesh Eating Bacteria” Linked to NSAIDs September 19, 2009
• Sudden worldwide increase in antibiotic-resistant bacterium December 28, 2009

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DISASTER CALENDAR – March 25, 2013 — 
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,083 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,083 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

Suspected Meningococcal Kills in 2 Hours

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,288 Days Left

[September 5, 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016. 

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,288 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History…

Global Disasters/ Significant Events

• Wellington, New Zealand.  Suspected meningococcal disease in New Zealand killed a Wellington schoolgirl two hours after ‘plague-like’ rashes appeared on her body. Amanda Crook, aged 12, became ill on Monday. She developed a rash at 3:00pm and was pronounced dead by 5:00 pm, just two hours later, despite being vaccinated, reports said.
  • ”. . . the aftermath of what it did to her – that wasn’t my daughter. It was almost like she had been attacked by the plague, that’s how horrific it was,” her mother told media.
  • “You’d think there would be warning, but there was just nothing. Even once she got to hospital and got antibiotics, she was talking. We thought she was coming right. [Suddenly] her heart, I think, just gave in.”
  • “It’s like it just selects its victims. I feel like we are dealing with the grim reaper,” said her mother.
  • “She was immunised, that’s what I don’t understand. But they don’t always work and to me that’s not fair. I just keep thinking I’m going to wake up. I feel like someone is going to shake me awake.”

Amanda Crook-Barker, 12, died in under two hours after showing symptoms of  suspected meningococcal disease, despite being vaccinated. Photo: Supplied by victim’s family, via local media. 

Meningococcal disease is a severe bacterial infection of the bloodstream or meninges (a thin lining covering the brain and spinal cord) caused by the meningococcus bacteria.

The disease has a fatality rate of about 10 percent, if identified and treated immediately. The survivors,  however, can expect permanent damage including brain injury and limb amputation.

‘Five confirmed cases of meningococcal disease have been reported across the Auckland region in the past week,’ said a report.

Dr Jeannette Adu-Bobie, an expert on meningococcal vaccines, contracted meningitis while working in NZ govt. Wellington lab. and had both legs, left arm and the digits of her right hand amputated. Source: Apartheid Fort New Zealand

Continued…

Related Links

• Post-antibiotic era emerging
• Was Dr Adu-Bobie a Victim of Biological Weapons Experiments?

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

GLOBAL WARNING

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID DECLINE IN PROGRESS!

States of Emergency Declared in Flooded Ontario Towns

Extensive flooding due to torrential rain prompts Ontario towns to declare states of emergency

The City of Thunder Bay, Conmee Township and the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge in northwestern Ontario, Canada have declared states of emergency following severe flooding due to extreme rain events.

Flooding has forced the authorities to close down dozens of schools in Thunder Bay area, reports said.

Up to 108mm of rain have been recorded by the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority over the last 24 to 36 hours, with the  highest amounts logged in Thunder Bay and Oliver Paipoonge.

Other Global Disasters, Significant Events

• New Zealand.  It’s been revealed that kiwifruit growers in New Zealand illegally inject their crops with the powerful antibiotic streptomycin to stop the spread of PSA bacteria.
  • The illegal use of streptomycin can create antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to toxicology experts.
  • Streptomycin is a bactericidal antibiotic and was the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis (TB).
  • In 2009, New Zealand researchers revealed that cases of necrotizing fasciitis in“flesh-eating” disease had surged by 300 percent since 1990.
  • Since about 1999, another serious form of monomicrobial necrotizing fasciitis,  the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium has struck with increasing frequency.
  • See also: Superbugs Invasion Has Begun

• Cyber world. Massive cyber-attack discovered

• Qatar. A large fire at a shopping mall in Doha, capital of the Saudi satellite state of Qatar, has killed at least 19 people, including 13 toddlers, and left more than 17 others injured, including 4 children.
  • The victims included Spanish, French, Filipino and two-year-old New Zealand triplets.

• North Korea. A severe drought is threatening food shortages in North Korea, which has received little rain since late April.

• Bologna, Italy.  A shallow earthquake measuring 5.8Mw struck Emilia Romagna region, 40 km (24 miles) NNW of Bologna, northern Italy, killing at least 10 people.
  • [Death toll is expected to rise because an unknown number of people are trapped under the rubble, police said.]
  • The quake was centered at 44.814°N, 11.079°E and struck at a depth of about 9.6 km (6 miles) on May 29, 2012 at 07:00 UTC, USGS/EHP reported.
  • The quake also caused structural damage, toppling a tower in San Felice sul Panaro, Italian media reported.
  • The quake was followed by at least three aftershocks, and the tremors were felt throughout northern Italy, including Milan, the financial capital.
  • The quake was the second significant shock to strike the region since May 20. The 6.0Mw quake earlier this month killed at least 7 people, injured dozens, destroyed hundreds of buildings and left about 5,000 people homeless.
  • See also: Italy Declares State of Emergency in EQ Zone Posted on May 23, 2012

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

Superbugs Invasion Has Begun

Post-antibiotic era emerging

A wide range of infectious bacteria are evolving, which even the most potent medicines cannot treat.

The Super Superbug C. difficile

The deadliest superbug is the antibiotic-resistant bacterium, Clostridium difficile, which a new super superbug on the rise, killing three times as many people as MRSA.

C. difficile infections have increased since 2007, according to a report.

“During a 24-month period, there were 847 cases of C. difficile infections in the 28 hospitals and the rate of C. difficile infection was 25 percent higher than the rate of infection due to MRSA.”

Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency show there were 55,681 cases of Clostridium difficile infection reported in patients aged 65 years and above in England in 2006. (Source: SIMeL Italy)

The bacteria are naturally present in the intestine but kept under control by other bacteria. Antibiotics can kill some of these, allowing C.difficile to take hold. Image source and other images. Click image to enlarge.

Related Links:

• Quarterly UK Clostridium difficile and MRSA figures
• Education on MRSA, C-Difficile, Latest news and infection related articles
• Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC)

• “Flesh Eating Bacteria” Linked to NSAIDs
• Should We Be Afraid of MRSA?
• MRSA: ACT II
• NZ Sees Surge in Flesh-Eating Disease Cases

Staphylococcus Aureus

The best known SUPERBUG is the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA. About 2 percent of the population in the U.S.  carry an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph, the National Institutes of Health has reported.

MRSA was discovered in the United Kingdom in 1961, but it is now a global concern. MRSA (also known as CA-MRSA, community-acquired MRSA, and HA-MRSA, hospital-acquired MRSA) is a variation of a common bacterium, which has evolved as a “superbug” with the ability to resist treatment with antibiotics, including methicillin and penicillin.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), MRSA is responsible for 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year in the United States. [In comparison, the AIDS virus killed about 12,500 Americans  in 2005. ]

Necrotizing fasciitis

Necrotizing fasciitis is a complication of severe group A streptococcal infection (GAS) (Streptococci pyogenes), which could lead to additional complications resulting in shock, organ failure and death.

CDC has estimated that necrotizing fasciitis causes about 15,000 infections each year in the United States, resulting in up to 3,000 deaths. UNFORTUNATELY,  “intensive surveillance efforts for necrotizing fasciitis in the United States have not been conducted since 1991,” according to the Department of Health Services.

“It usually begins with a cut or maybe a major surgery or just some trauma we experience in our everyday life,” according to a doctor.

“Necrotizing fasciitis can spread through touch contact from person to person or if you touch something that is contaminated,” said the doctor, adding that up to 50% of people “have no known entrance point.” That is  the victim does not need an open sore to acquire the deadly bacteria.

NEW NT-MRSA Strains

The Emerging Infectious Diseases of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered a new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is responsible to more than 20 percent of all human MRSA infections in the Netherlands.

“Persons working or living in close contact with pigs or cows are at increased risk of becoming colonized and infected with MRSA. Infections can be severe, as is indicated by the hospital admission rate.”

According to other research MRSA was also prevalent in Canadian pigs and pig farmers. Full report

H041

H041 is a superbug strain of gonorrhea which was discovered by a Swedish researcher, 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 [more than 600,000 new cases recorded annually,]” he said.

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

The H041 “first emerged in Japan in 1999 and began spreading around the globe from there, arriving in California in 2008 and moving across to the East Coast by last year.”

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

Related Links

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

Other Superbugs on the Move

Tuberculosis (TB). The once cured by antibiotics, about 5 percent of the reported cases of TB [12 million cases reported in 2010, including 1.4 million fatalities] have become multidrug resistant, according to WHO.

The Food-borne Bugs: Escherichia Coli (E. coli) and Salmonella

“During the past decade, the emergence of drug-resistant E. coli has dramatically increased. As a consequence, the management of [urinary tract infections] UTIs, which was previously straightforward, has become more complicated; the risks for treatment failure are higher, and the cost of UTI  treatment is increasing,” said a report.

Hospital-borne pathogens: ESKAPE

The six hospital-bourne bacteria, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, Klebsiella, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Enterobacter, are escaping antibiotics.

These pathogens are associated with vulnerable patients which acquire the infections from hospital equipment and surgical implants.

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar