March 7, 2013, 2:30 pm

CDC superbug report was no surprise to University, other Colorado hospitals


News this week of the CDC’s urgent warning to the public about new strains of drug-resistant bacteria has University of Colorado Hospital officials and others sharpening their admonitions to the public about antibiotic overuse.

The CDC said it had an alarming number of new reports of so-called “Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE),” which are especially virulent and “kill up to half of patients who get bloodstream infections from them.” University Hospital infectious disease specialist Dr. Michelle Barron said the Aurora facility has seen a couple of cases, but so far has been able to treat the pneumonia-like symptoms with existing antibiotics.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Michelle Barron

Dr. Michelle Barron (UCD)

Barron did take the opportunity, though, to remind people how they play an unwitting role in making the world safer for bad bacteria, through their own hygiene and health care decisions. The spread of CRE is due in part to overuse of everyday antibiotics by doctors, their patients who demand them even when not appropriate, and by livestock and dairy companies who broadcast antibiotics in feed to keep their valuable food animals from getting sick. The overuse allows many forms of bacteria to evolve and form resistance to the common antibiotics, and it adds to an arms race with the medical community: bacteria evolve, hospitals have to resort to higher-level antibiotics to treat dangerous infections, the bacteria evolve again in response to the wider presence of the new antibiotic, and so on, until in some cases there are bacterial strains that don’t respond to any known antibiotic.

“What consequences does that antibiotic you needed have for everybody else?” Barron said. The medicines are unique because consumer decisions don’t just affect that patient, they have a consequence for the overall health of the “herd.” Even flushing your unused antibiotic down the toilet has a community-wide impact in the long run, Barron said.

Doctors have a role by prescribing antibiotics only when they are convinced an illness has bacterial rather than viral roots, medical experts say. And patients have a similar responsibility not to push for antibiotics every time their kids get a chest cold or ear ache, for example. Some doctors write the prescription just to stop an argument, without explaining that an anti-bacterial medicine has no impact on the common cold viruses, and that most ear infections go away because of time passing.

Barron’s advice to the public, after the scary CDC warning of “nightmare” bacteria, is to use antibiotics wisely, including not taking somebody else’s leftovers or buying them over the counter in foreign countries; practicing food safety by washing hands thoroughly and cooking meat to recommended temperatures to kill all bacteria; and keeping good personal hygiene to keep bacteria that live safely in the gut from spreading to other parts of the body or to family members. The CDC also added specific admonitions to patients or employees who visit more than one medical facility, as the CRE bugs spread most often in health institutions and can leapfrog through human carriers.


Article Comments

  • The Farmer

    Yet the Local, Federal, and State goverments harrass those who choose to farm and eat naturally… Without Antibiotics… Why is that?

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