Drug-Resistant Diarrhea Germ Spreading
Mike Stobbe
Associated Press
Mercuryn News
_____________
Atlanta, Georgia (US):
A deadly bacterial illness commonly seen in people on antibiotics appears to be growing more common -- even in patients not taking such drugs, according to a report published Thursday in a federal health journal.In another article in the New England Journal of Medicine, health officials said samples of the same bacterium taken from eight U.S. hospitals show it is mutating to become even more resistant to antibiotics.``I don't want to scare people away from using antibiotics. . . . But it's concerning, and we need to respond,'' said L. Clifford McDonald, an author of both articles and an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The bacterium is Clostridium difficile, also known as C-diff. The germ is becoming a regular menace in hospitals and nursing homes, and last year it was blamed for 100 deaths over 18 months at a hospital in Quebec.
________________________________
See Also
Strains of the germ have been detected among people who have not been in a hospital
________________________________
The article published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report focused on cases involving 33 otherwise healthy people that were reported since 2003 in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
Dec 03, 2005
Mike Stobbe
Associated Press
Mercuryn News
_____________
Atlanta, Georgia (US):
A deadly bacterial illness commonly seen in people on antibiotics appears to be growing more common -- even in patients not taking such drugs, according to a report published Thursday in a federal health journal.In another article in the New England Journal of Medicine, health officials said samples of the same bacterium taken from eight U.S. hospitals show it is mutating to become even more resistant to antibiotics.``I don't want to scare people away from using antibiotics. . . . But it's concerning, and we need to respond,'' said L. Clifford McDonald, an author of both articles and an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The bacterium is Clostridium difficile, also known as C-diff. The germ is becoming a regular menace in hospitals and nursing homes, and last year it was blamed for 100 deaths over 18 months at a hospital in Quebec.
________________________________
See Also
Strains of the germ have been detected among people who have not been in a hospital
________________________________
The article published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report focused on cases involving 33 otherwise healthy people that were reported since 2003 in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
Dec 03, 2005
