Resistant Infections: No Minor Nuisance

by Thomas Murray
Weve all been shocked by the occasional news stories about the dreaded flesh-eating
bacteria. With so many negative stories in the news, its easy to convince yourself,
that could never happen to me. However, even the most common hospital infections
like staphylococcus, once considered a minor nuisance easily cured by antibiotics like
methicillin, have begun to show an increased resistance to the latest medications.
In 2002, doctors in Geneva first confirmed Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus or MRSA, the most common hospital infection in the world. Bacteria with
drug resistance can, as their name implies, resist standard courses of treatment with
even the strongest antibiotics, spreading from the site of infection through the
bloodstream, causing system-wide infections.
However, these persistent infections eventually succumb to treatment, but it is often in
longer-than-recommended courses of medicines. Unfortunately, with such treatment,
the drugs are so potent they make the patient sick. As a last resort, surgical removal of
the infected tissue or amputation is the only effective treatment.
Until a few years ago, such super-bugs were thought contained to hospitals. However,
an article in the January edition of Environmental Health Perspectives medical journal
proves that sterilization procedures in hospitals along with proper sanitation and
advanced medicines are no longer silver bullets against the spread of these insidious
maladies into the general population.
Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association further
indicates that outbreaks of tuberculosis and Legionnaires infections have shown signs
of flourishing outside of hospitals and in much more public settings like restaurants
and office buildings. As a high profile example, when word broke in October 2003
that the Man of Steel Christopher Reeve, passed away from complications arising
from an infection, few in mainstream America realized his disability had not
contributed directly to his death. However, when pressure sores due to immobility or
the use of prosthetics threaten to kill you, you tend to take notice.
As easy as it may seem to point the finger at the medical establishment, blame for the
increased risk of exposure lay as often at the feet of patients as it does on the
shoulders of their doctors. Over-prescription is the most common cause of medication
resistance in bacteria. Ironically, because viral infections like the common cold and

the winter flu do not respond to antibiotic treatment, prescribing antibiotics as a

blanket cure just to be safe was once thought by most family doctors to be harmless.
The sobering fact is, prescribing antibiotics for non-bacterial infections reduces the
overall effectiveness of those drugs in the general population. Realizing this, more
doctors limit the issue of antibiotics exclusively to cases of bacterial infection. So,
many patients cannot understand their doctors sudden reluctance to prescribe
antibiotics, especially where children are concerned.
Sadly, due largely to the nations broken healthcare system, it is still more costeffective for a doctor to prescribe a harmless antibiotic to allay a patients concerns
than it is to spend office time educating them.
What is important for patients to know? First, antibiotics do not treat viral infections.
Second, bacteria evolve much quicker than multi-cellular organisms (like us) due to
their rapid growth and short lifespans, meaning several generations of bacterial cells
may proliferate in mere days. Thus, the genetic mutations that occur naturally over
time in all organisms can select for survival only those lucky few bacteria that
coincidentally develop antibiotic resistance. This means taking antibiotics improperly
actually causes drug resistance. Lastly, antibiotics work differently from patient to
patient and against certain bacterial strains. For one person with a throat infection, an
older antibiotic like amoxicillin may be enough, but for more and more people newer,
stronger drugs like zithromax are the only effective remedies. However, these newest
drugs are unreasonably expensive.
There are things we all can do to stop the assault of resistant bacteria. Since people are
living longer, healthier lives, sanitation procedures such as chlorination and high
temperatures at healthcare facilities and nursing homes must be improved. The lack of
education on the subject to patients and caregivers and the complacence by doctors
are correctable issues. By working together, we can slow the spread of killer versions
of bacterial infections like staphylococcus and streptococcus into the mainstream.