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Deadly virus controlled, vanquished at NIH Clinical Center
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
August 24th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
August 24th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
A "superbug" that swept through the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center killed at least six people over a six-month period. Scrubbing all surfaces with bleach was unable to stop the viruses' deadly onslaught. Scientists were finally able to contain the disease in what could have potentially escalated to epidemic proportions.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Eighteen people harbored the dangerous germ within the institute, with five making it through the outbreak only to die from their original diseases. An average of one patient a week was catching the bug.Gene detectives teasing apart the bacteria's DNA to solve the germ's spread has now provided a blueprint for hospitals everywhere as they face the struggle to contain the growing threat of superbugs.
The situation began after a single patient carrying a fairly new superbug known as KPC, or Klebsiella pneumonia that resists treatment by one of the last lines of defense, antibiotics called carbapenems.
"We never want this to happen again," Dr. Tara Palmore, deputy hospital epidemiologist at the NIH Clinical Center said.
Most tellingly, infections at health care facilities are one of the nation's leading causes of preventable death, claiming an estimated 99,000 lives a year.
Fast sequencing of a germ's genome, its full DNA, may be essential. It can reveal how drug-resistant bacteria are spreading so that doctors can protect other patients.
"This is not an easy story to tell," Dr. Julie Segre, a senior investigator at NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute says. Serge found the bug hiding in sink drains and even in a ventilator that had been cleaned with bleach.
Other hospitals are heralding the report as a groundbreaking tool in the fight against superbugs.
"They were able to demonstrate that this sneaky little bug was able to stay alive and get transmitted in ways they hadn't quite predicted before they had the detailed genetic information," Dr. Sara Cosgrove, associate hospital epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University says. "It's very revealing."
The Klebsiella bacteria live in human intestines and don't harm people with healthy immune systems. The virus has emerged over the past decade to become a fast-growing threat in intensive care units, spreading easily between very ill people and killing half of those it sickens. Even worse is the fact that people can carry KPC without symptoms unless the germs slip into the urinary tract or bloodstream through a catheter or surgical wound.
The 243-bed NIH Clinical Center, in Washington's suburbs, is a unique hospital, only treating people enrolled in government research studies.
The last carrier of the bacteria was found in December, but the hospital isn't dropping its guard. The isolation room remains, used every time one of the seven outbreak survivors returns to the hospital for their ongoing research studies - because they still carry the strain. In addition, authorities make sure that no new KPC strain sneaks in.
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