Tags: Resistant Pneumonia and Diarrhea Klebsiella and Clostridium difficile, Gram Negative Gene India Pneumonia Deaths
Kawakami: Summary of Epidemics in hospital acquired highly resistant gram negative Klebsiella pneumoniae and gram positive and/or gram negative Clostridium difficile or C-diff bacteria and spores.
The epidemic started in New York hospitals and has spread to 37 states. Chicago is the latest with huge problems. Few antibiotics for gram negative bacterias work well anymore for this resistant form.
I have read only one example of a prevention treatment by yogurt probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus carried with the patient’s air supply. I don’t know if post treatment works.
Hospital Epidemics Resistant Bacterias: Major hospitals are suffering epidemics in a very deadly mutated gram negative bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae, a common bacteria that is the most frequent cause of pneumonia and bloodstream infection. It can also be found in urinary infections. The fear is that gram negative e-coli may acquire this resistant gene. This bacteria is present in the colon of everyone.
Although denied by India, the New Delhi gene which is easily transferred in gram negative bacteria, has caused epidemics in major hospitals starting in New York.
It is difficult to treat resistant pneumonia bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae. Carbapenem antibiotics used to treat gram negative bacterial infections no longer work well. The resistant gene is present in bacteria infecting a wide segment of the people in India and Pakistan who apparently developed a tolerance for it and less likely to have wholesale use of antibiotics not only for individuals, but in large numbers of cows and beef cattle, pigs, chickens, and other animals in our food factories in our food and water.
The resistant bacteria may explain why there are increased deaths from pneumonia in top rated hospitals in major cities. (April 2011, Scientific American, pages 46-53.
With daily use of bleach on all suspected surfaces, the Mayo clinic was able to reduce infections by half. Most pneumonia is acquired in hospitals.
A similar problems has emerged with intestinal diarrhea hospitalizations with a resistant form of Clostridium difficile which gives us severe diarrhea.
However probiotics do not work as well on hospital patients who get very severe diarrhea from the inflammatory Clostridium difficile. One woman expected to die in a day or two from resistant C-diff was treated with a new technique. The doctors replaced her protective bacteria by inserting healthy feces from her husband’s colon.
A miracle recovery happened from the first day and she stayed in the hospital for two weeks to be sure it would not come back. She did not return to the hospital. Since that time, many doctors have successfully tried this feces healthy bacteria insertion approach. However, many patients refused to use this treatment or their spouses or family refused to consent even though the success rate averaged 94% and all were over 90%. So far a google search indicates this treatment is not wide spread or published in medical journals.
Because the C-diff acquired so many genes within a decade, I strongly suspect as do a few doctor scientists that the spores and bacteria may be partly gram negative bacteria which acquires genes easily. I do not know whether carbapenems antibiotics that work against gram negative bacteria was used in the treatments.
The FDA has temporarily halted the use of feces to cure incurable C-diff infections to check on side-effects, so patients may have to fend for themselves and get feces from family or friends who have healthy feces. It is not a complicated procedure.
When I acquired bacteria during an endoscopy and got diarrhea, I found that Trunature Digestive Probiotic from Costco helped keep it in check and had mild diarrhea only once a day for a week and was able to eat my normal meal anyway.
C-diff gram negative or gram positive bacteria has acquired 5 genes in the last Bush decade where one-third are resistant to antibiotics and more often than not. The spores form when attacked by antibiotics which protects it and increases the difficulty of treating it with antibiotics. The assumption is that the spores are gram positive, but it might be worth checking with quicker deaths available in some hospitals to check this out more carefully. It is possible there is a mix of the two types.
About a third of the patients are resistant to many gram positive antibiotics and 10 percent are resistant to all antibiotics including Vancomycin, the antibiotic of last resort. Vancomycin does not kill the bacteria, but stops it from growing. A continuing problem is that patients often leave the hospital too quickly due to corporate insurance restrictions and then come back again. Medicare, under Obama, now punishes hospitals financially if a patient has to return.
Jim Kawakami, Nov 30, 2011, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com
