Spread of fatal bacterial illness feared

Spread of fatal bacterial illness feared

A deadly illness caused by a bacterium appears to be spreading in the US. Earlier the bacterial infection was seen in patients who were administered antibiotics. But off late several cases of the disease in otherwise healthy people have come to light.

According to an article published in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, infection by the Bacterium Clostridium difficile, or C-diff, has led to 100 deaths in 18 months at a Quebec hospital.

The illness is common in patients who are on antibiotics and has become a nuisance in hospitals. “I don't want to scare people away from using antibiotics. But it's concerning, and we need to respond,” said Dr. L. Clifford McDonald, a CDC epidemiologist and author of the report. “We think C-diff is much more widespread. It's not a nationally reportable disease, and there is not a formalized surveillance. Hospitals need to be conducting surveillance and implementing control measures.”

The article cites 33 cases since 2003 in the four states of Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Jersey wherein healthy people who have neither been to hospitals nor have taken antibiotics have contracted the infection. “What exactly has made C-diff act up right now, we don't know,” McDonald said.

C-diff attacks the colon and causes a deadly condition called colitis. The symptoms of the infection include diarrhea, nausea, stomachache and fever. The bacterium is said to be spreading through spores present in human feces. These spores are very difficult to kill; washing hands with antibacterial soaps may not be totally effective. “People need to keep their hands clean,” Dr. McDonald said.

The bacterium is resistant to antibiotics like clindamycin. When patients take such antibiotics, the antibiotics kill other bacteria in the colon but fail to kill C-diff. Without competition from other bacteria C-diff proliferates.