Post date: Mar 18, 2013 5:11:41 PM
Israel-Super-bug -- Super-bug bacteria infection rate drops 70% in Israel
China Central Television (CCTV) - A drug-resistant bacterium, named "super-bug", has been reported in some hospitals in the United States. But in Israel, the infection rate has dropped 70 percent recently.
In medical jargon, the bacterium is called Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), and non-professionals refer it as the super-bug because it is treatment resistant and kills one of every two people who contract it in the bloodstream.CRE is not treatable with antibiotics and it is on the rise in U.S. hospitals. The infection has been reported in 42 U.S. states during the past decade. But Israelhas witnessed a success in combating this super-bug, after 27 hospitals' coordinated effort to isolate the bacteria.
"Beginning with infectious disease, doctors realize we have the same problems in the five big hospitals, putting together the task force in the Ministry of Health, putting in rules - very strict isolation precautions," said professor Allon Moses, MD, Head of Infectious Diseases Department of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
Patients identified with the super-bug are placed in isolation wards and assigned dedicated caretakers. Potential CRE patients are tested and carriers are tracked.
A strict hand-washing policy is also enforced in hospitals countrywide and healthcare providers file daily reports on CRE patients. Right now, the super-bug is contained within hospital wards. According to medical experts, the current problem is when it breaks out of the hospital.
"We've seen that it's not transmitted, transferred from the sick patient who was released from the hospital to the healthy family. So, I think in that sense we are still at the point of containment of this very resistant bacteria," added Moses.
Nowadays people travel globally, which means disease and epidemics can spread faster and go farther than ever before. But there are positives about the bacteria: it is weak as strains and doesn't thrive outside of medical facilities.
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