Originally published January 2 2006
Deadly bacteria sweeps across the U.S. and raises concern among medical experts
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A bacterium, known as Clostridium difficile, has been spreading across the U.S., causing severe, sometimes deadly cases of diarrhea, and L. Clifford McDonald of the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) addresses the concerns of the medical community, particularly the overuse of antibiotics, which many experts claim is responsible for the recent outbreak of the bacterium.
A new, more dangerous strain of a germ that has long caused diarrhea in hospital patients is now widespread in the United States, causing severe, sometimes deadly outbreaks around the country, researchers reported Thursday.
Strains of the germ have been detected among people who have never been in a hospital, raising alarm that the infection may be emerging more widely and posing a broader public-health threat, the researchers said.
While the infection does not pose a public-health emergency, doctors and patients need to be aware of the risk so cases can be identified and treated quickly and measures can be taken to limit its spread, experts said.
The germ may have emerged in part due to the overuse of antibiotics, the experts added, and its emergence provides another reason to use antibiotics as judiciously as possible.
"We are very concerned about this," said L. Clifford McDonald of the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The bacterium, known as Clostridium difficile, has long been known to cause diarrhea in hospitals, particularly in patients who are taking antibiotics for other reasons.
In three new reports released Thursday by the CDC and the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers identified the strain responsible for the Quebec cases, determined that the same strain is present throughout the United States, and described other cases outside of hospitals.
In the first paper, Vivian Loo of McGill University reported that the strain of bacteria responsible for the Quebec outbreak had mutated to be more resistant to a widely used class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones.
In another report published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, McDonald and his colleagues reported that at least 33 cases have been reported in four states --- Pennsylvania, Ohio New Jersey and New Hampshire --- since 2003.
Twenty-three cases involved otherwise healthy people and 10 were in healthy pregnant women.
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