(CP) – 6 days ago
TORONTO — A single case has turned up in Canada of a person affected
by a new strain of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics, a health
official said Wednesday.
The case was reported to health authorities in February, and involved
a woman who had travelled to India, picked up the superbug and was
treated unsuccessfully in hospital there, said Dr. Howard Njoo of the
Public Health Agency of Canada.
The patient was eventually transferred to a hospital in Vancouver,
where physicians were able to find a combination of antibiotics that
would work against this particular bacteria, he said.
Reports indicated there was a second case in Alberta as well.
The journal Lancet Infectious Diseases carried a study Wednesday
describing bacteria with resistance conferred by an enzyme, called
NDM-1.
It has been seen largely in E. coli bacteria, the most common cause of
urinary tract infections, and on DNA structures that can be easily
copied and passed onto other types of bacteria.
The new superbug is already widespread in India, and has also been
identified in 37 people who returned to Britain after surgery in India
or Pakistan.
The resistant bug also has been detected in Australia, the U.S., the
Netherlands and Sweden. It's expected to spread worldwide since many
Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective
procedures such as cosmetic surgery, the researchers said.
"We've been aware of this situation for some time, and we've been
closely monitoring it both in Canada and globally for the past year,"
said Njoo, who is director general for the Centre for Communicable
Diseases and Infection Control.
"Through our hospital-based surveillance system we've actually been
carefully looking for this superbug," he said from Ottawa.
Njoo said it's encouraging that good infection control practices were
implemented in the Vancouver case.
"And as a result, with the patient being isolated and so on, there was
no further spread of infection to anyone else in the hospital," he
said, noting the patient recovered and did well.
The spread of the new bacteria underscores a number of key points
about infectious disease, he indicated.
"First of all we can't become complacent and we need to continue to be
vigilant, and maintain our surveillance system, and expect that the
hospitals, if they do encounter a case such as this that they report
it to us," he said.
In addition, good infection control practices need to be in place so
there isn't further spread within a hospital, he said.
"And then the other point, which I think is very important, is that I
think the general use of antibiotics in terms of the prudent use, not
to be used indiscriminately, can't be over-emphasized — for both
patients and for health-care professionals."
_ With files from The Associated Press
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