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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

South Africa : Superbug may be 'more widespread'

Via Times Live :

" The New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) superbug, which caused four Gauteng deaths, may be "more widespread" than previously thought, a microbiology expert said on Wednesday.

"The fact that unrelated NDM-1 producing bacteria have been found in a patient in a public sector hospital would indicate that, if we look harder, this problem is more widespread than we think," said Professor Adrian Duse.

Duse, the head of the outbreak response unit of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, was responding to questions about a recent outbreak of the superbug.

Ten patients at the Life Glynnwood Hospital had been diagnosed with NDM-1 and another at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.

"Early detection by screening patients means that [Life Glynnwood Hospital], because of its proactive screening programme, was more likely to find NDM-1 carrying patients than in other healthcare facilities where screening might have been less intensive," Duse said.

NDM-1 is an enzyme produced by bacteria, making bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

On Saturday, a fourth patient infected with the enzyme died at the Glynnwood hospital. It could not be determined to what extent NDM-1 had contributed to the four deaths, as each of these patients were seriously ill with other medical conditions."

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