New Strain of Staph infection

[ladyinred]

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Drug-resistant tuberculosis levels 10 times higher in eastern Europe and central Asia

The tuberculosis challenge in the European Region [pdf, 105KB]
Fact Sheet EURO/01/04
Copenhagen, 23 March 2004
Also available in: fr[pdf, 95KB], de[pdf, 95KB], ru[pdf, 94KB]

Tuberculosis (TB) control


Press Release WHO/17
Geneva, 16 March 2004
Tuberculosis (TB) patients in parts of eastern Europe and central Asia are 10 times more likely to have multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) than those in the rest of the world, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report into the deadly infectious disease. China, Ecuador, Israel and South Africa are also identified as key areas.

New data released today confirm geographical concentrations of TB-drug resistance across the Commonwealth of Independent States. Six out of the top ten global hotspots are: Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, parts of the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan, with drug resistance in new patients as high as 14%.

"TB drug resistance is an urgent public health issue for countries from the former Soviet Union," said Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of WHO's Stop TB Department. "It is in the interest of every country to support rapid scale-up of TB control if we are to overcome MDR-TB. Passport control will not halt drug resistance; investment in global TB prevention will."

WHO's leading infectious disease experts estimate there are 300 000 new cases per year of MDR-TB worldwide. There is also new evidence proving that drug-resistant strains are becoming more resistant, and unresponsive to current treatments; 79% of MDR-TB cases are now "super strains", resistant to at least three of the four main drugs used to cure TB.

MDR-TB is TB that is resistant to the two drugs most commonly used to treat it, isoniazid and rifampicin. Without the correct drugs, MDR-TB is untreatable and, in most cases, fatal. Though curing "normal" TB is cheap and effective - a six-month course of medicines costs US$ 10 - treating MDR-TB is a hundred times more expensive. Even then, a cure is not guaranteed. With no effective vaccine, everyone is vulnerable to infection simply by breathing in a droplet carrying a virulent drug-resistant strain.

Highest prevalence of MDR-TB coincides with one of the world's fastest-growing HIV infection rates in eastern Europe and central Asia. Recently the United Nations Development Programme reported more than 1.5 million people living with the virus in the region, compared to just 30 000 in 1995. People whose immune systems are compromised with HIV are many times more susceptible to contracting all forms of TB.

"With people's immune systems compromised, MDR-TB has a perfect opportunity to spread rapidly and kill," said WHO Assistant Director-General for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, Dr Jack Chow. "As a priority to prevent the spread of all forms of TB, we need more investment in resources, programmes and health workers."

New surveys in China, where HIV is also increasing, have also mapped MDR-TB areas of concern. Two provinces revealed that around 1 in every 10 new patients tested positive for MDR-TB. The report's authors fear similar high levels of resistance could exist elsewhere, since only 6 of the country's 23 provinces were represented in the study.

Some successes have been achieved since the last study four years ago, most notably in Cuba, Hong Kong and the United States. Rates in those countries have decreased, as a result of strong and well-maintained TB strategies.

According to the report, "the most effective strategy to prevent the emergence of drug resistance is through implementation of the DOTS". DOTS (directly observed treatment, short-course) is the internationally agreed treatment strategy, and is designed to ensure patients take their medicines properly. It has proved effective in preventing drug resistance.

The report also notes that TB control strategies used in eastern Europe and the Russian Federation have recently begun to improve with the introduction of the DOTS strategy. In the worst-affected areas, innovative DOTS Plus schemes, which diagnose and effectively treat MDR-TB, are being introduced. Patient access to MDR-TB drugs is key to the success of the DOTS Plus strategy. The cost of supplying these medicines has fallen dramatically through initiatives backed by WHO: namely, the Green Light Committee, which engages pharmaceutical companies to fully support the fight to eradicate MDR-TB.

Research into and development of new TB drugs are also urgently required to shorten the length of treatment and to treat drug-resistant strains. After a forty-year standstill in TB drug development, research and development investments are critical now to expand treatment options and overcome resistant strains. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, a WHO partner, is building a pipeline of promising new drugs and uniting public and private researchers in the search for a faster cure.

Anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in the world - Third global report presents data from the examination of 67 657 TB patients in 77 countries and regions.

"The more we survey, the more MDR-TB we find," said the report's leading author, Dr Mohamed Aziz. "MDR-TB has now been identified in every region and almost every country surveyed in what is the largest drug resistance surveillance project of its kind. Yet the true burden is unknown and may well be higher in unsurveyed areas, stressing the need for full expansion of drug resistance surveillance."

Editors' note: On 24 March, WHO will release its 2004 global TB control report in tandem with the opening of the second Stop TB partners' forum in New Delhi, where donors, technical agencies and ministers from the 22 high-TB-burden countries will discuss accelerated action to expand DOTS and contain the global epidemic.

For more information contact:
Thomas Schoenemann
Berlin, Germany
Tel. (mobile): +49 (173) 65 05 735

Jove Oliver
Kiev, Ukraine
Tel. (mobile): +380 (505) 948 616

Glenn Thomas
Communication Officer
Stop TB Department
World Health Organization
Geneva, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 22 791 3983
Tel. (mobile): +41 79 509 0677
E-mail: thomasg@who.int

Gwynne Oosterbaan
On aids and HIV:Since HIV/AIDS was first recognised and up until
2000, the HIV virus has infected more than 49
million people worldwide. There are currently over
33 million people infected, and there were 2.6
million deaths in 1999 alone. HIV/AIDS has
become the fourth leading cause of mortality, and
its impact will continue to increase. Over 95% of
all HIV cases and AIDS deaths occur in poorer,
usually tropical, countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is
the worst affected. The newly independent states
of the former Soviet Union recorded the world’s
steepest HIV increase in 1999, with the proportion
of the population infected with HIV doubling
between 1997 and 1999. It is estimated that the
number of infected people rose by over a third in
the remainder of central and Eastern Europe during
1999 reaching a total of 360 000. In Western
Europe, new combinations of anti-retroviral drugs
continue to reduce the number of AIDS deaths
significantly, however, new infections still occur.
The spread of HIV and subsequent AIDS related
deaths have many repercussions, including high
child mortality rates in some countries, increased
numbers of orphans and a significant burden on
health care systems and the economies.

According to the right , aids is God's wrath on homosexuals..This pretty much debunks the myth that aids is the homosexual scorge. If they weren't so full of it ,it would be laughable.So much for truth of information.That is not one of their virtues it seems. Jump on the bandwagon blame it all on gay men.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by Daniel

I've be tuning into the Gay USA on our own local Public Access channel tomorrow night to get the lowdown on this. If anyone will know the scoop, it will be Andy Humm and Ann Northrop.

My best friend's father had a health emergency last night, so hubby and I spend the evening with our friend- hence- missed the show- and the scoop.

But I know this issue will become more clear in a few days- I'll keep my eyes are ears open for news.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by Daniel

My best friend's father had a health emergency last night, so hubby and I spend the evening with our friend- hence- missed the show- and the scoop.

But I know this issue will become more clear in a few days- I'll keep my eyes are ears open for news.

http://www.towleroad.com/2008/01/cdc-clarifies-m.html

In short: totally overblown story.

The CDC notes: "MRSA is a common cause of skin infections throughout the United States. These infections occur in men, women, adults, children, and persons of all races and sexual orientations, and are known to be transmitted by close skin-to-skin contact. In this issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Diep et al looked at isolates of MRSA - USA300 strains containing a particular plasmid associated with additional drug resistance. The paper shows that multidrug-resistant USA300 has emerged as an important source of disease among men with have sex with men in 2 geographically distinct communities. The strains of MRSA described in the recent Annals of Internal Medicine have mostly been identified in certain groups of men who have sex with men (MSM), but have also been found in some persons who are not MSM. It is important to note that the groups of MSM in which these isolates have been described are not representative of all MSM, so conclusions can not be drawn about the prevalence of these strains among all MSM. The groups studied in this report may share other characteristics or behaviors that facilitate spread of MRSA, such as frequent skin-to-skin contact."

In a seeming effort to quell panic, the CDC goes on to say that the continuing study of these strains indicates that they are rare, and there are still effective antibiotic choices (including those taken orally) available to treat infections, but transmission prevention is still important.

They conclude: "MRSA is typically transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, which occurs during a variety of activities, including sex. There is no evidence at this time to suggest that it MRSA is a sexually-transmitted infection in the classical sense."

Diep's story and hysterical warning that "once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable" was quickly seized upon by right-wing religious leaders like Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber as the latest threat to the general population from the gay community, and criticized by editors at gay newspapers across the country, as well as one heterosexual female medical reporter who called it "homophobic and looking to paint gay men as filthy carriers of infectious disease, who have too much sex."

You go girlfriend!

And, Salon writes: "When it comes to spreading the bacteria, it is not homosexuals we have to worry about. It is that much wider swath of the male population examined in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the journal, the medical researchers were not studying gays, they were studying the St. Louis Rams. That is correct: football players; in particular, linebackers. 'In our investigation,' the journal noted, 'infection occurred only among linemen and linebackers, and not among those in backfield positions, probably because of the frequent contact among linemen during practice and games.' Those rug burns I mentioned are in fact turf burns. 'All MRSA skin abscesses developed at sites of turf burns," declared the journal.'"

Who would have thought: straight football players have/get the same infection!

There's some poetic justice going on here: according to the homophobes, gay men are supposed to be acting like linebackers.

This issues isn't about gay or straight. It's about keeping youself clean- literally. Soap and water. That's it.

[ladyinred]

Way to go Daniel...!!! Now if we could expose this lie of gay men just getting it or that is something new.... Now how to do that?

[tdogg]

This is just the 'new AIDS' for the religious right, who are desperate to put a wedge in the political battle for president. They know it will be a longshot to put a Republican in office after 8 years of Bush, so they are trying to grab at anything they can to create a stir, to sway voters to a Rep. Some medical cases came out currently, so they jumped on the bandwagon to blame it all on the gays. As if there weren't enough hysteria going on already.

Seriously, for a group of people that one would think honesty is a major trait, I see very little honesty in these religious fundamental, right-winged Republicans.

[ladyinred]

I would think that honesty should be a major trait for any Christian TDogg, even the bible says not to bear false witness against your neighbor and to speak truth your neighbor.and to put away all lying and slander. That means there is no malicious intent to spread falsehoods about others in order to character assassinate or harm them.In fact those who honestly want to seek the truth should protect those who are unfairly maligned and attacked.

[Daniel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/us...in&oref=slogin

By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: January 20, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — In a matter of days, it jumped from a routine press release to a medical controversy.

On Monday, a team of researchers led by doctors from the University of California at San Francisco announced that gay men were “many times more likely than others” to acquire a new strain of drug-resistant staphylococcus, a nasty, fast-spreading and potential lethal bacteria known as MRSA USA300. And sure enough, the study, published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was quickly picked up by reporters round the world and across the Internet, including a London tabloid which dubbed the disease “the new H.I.V.”

But for gay men in the Castro neighborhood here, which was an early epicenter for the AIDS epidemic and a current hot spot for MRSA, the report also seemed to cast an unfair, and all too familiar, stigma on their sexuality.

“The way they keep targeting gays as if gays alone are responsible for it, it's like H.I.V./AIDS all over again,” said Colin Thurlow, 60, who is gay and lives in San Francisco. “And we’re sick and tired of it.”

The report also inadvertently offered ammunition for many antigay groups, including the conservative Concerned Women for America, which issued a release on Wednesday citing the “sexual deviancy” of gay men as leading to AIDS, syphilis and gonorrhea.

“The medical community has known for years that homosexual conduct, especially among males, creates a breeding ground for often deadly disease,” the release read.

Another group, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, also cited the report as a way of proving that “homosexual behavior is unhealthy.”

“Why aren’t all schoolchildren being taught that there are special health risks associated with homosexual behavior and that they should ‘just say no’ to homosexuality?” read a released posted on the group’s Web site.

National gay rights groups were quick to label such talk as “hysteria,” even as researchers as the university scrambled to clarify their findings. On Friday, it issued an apology, saying their release had “contained some information that could be interpreted as misleading.”

“We deplore negative targeting of specific populations in association with MRSA infections or other public health concerns,” it concluded. Dr. Henry Chambers, one of the report’s authors and a professor of medicine at the university, said he was surprised by how the report had been spun.

“I think we were looking at this from a scientific point of view and not projecting any political impact,” he said. Oh really? “We were focusing on the data. You want to make sure it’s as right as possible and written up in a form that reviewers would understand what you’re trying to say, and do it in a clear manner so it’s not subject to misinterpretation. Which is what happened later, it appears.”

One of the major sore points for some critics was a quote attributed to the report’s lead author, Bien Diep, a researcher who said he was concerned about “a potential spread of this strain into the general population.”

Mr. Diep, 29, said on Friday he regretted not being more thorough in communicating his research to reporters. He said that the term “general population” was part of medical jargon used in the report, which did not translate well.

So...the rest of us have to put up with his learning curve?

“It’s really meant to be used to mean all inclusive, including the men-who-have-sex-with-men population,” he said.

Spin. Spin. Spin.

Worries about the negative press resonated even as some gay men here expressed concern about the disease itself. The report looked at nine San Francisco hospitals in 2004 and 2005. A separate part of the study, conducted at an AIDS clinic in the city from 2004 to 2006, found that gay men were 13 times more likely to be infected with MRSA USA300.

Ok. Got that. Now show us the actual numbers.

Josh Figurido, 27, a bartender at Metro, a popular gay bar in the Castro, said he had only heard about the strain this week, but was already taking precautions when it came to sex. “I’m definitely going to be a lot more careful with what goes on,” he said.

Listen honey- you should always be careful.

But Mr. Figurado said he was less concerned about antigay rhetoric. “It’s not just gay people that get it,” he said. “You can get it anywhere.”

You said a mouthful!

Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which helped finance the study, affirmed on Wednesday that the disease was not sexually transmitted or limited to a certain type of person. It is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, the agency said in a statement, and is widespread in hospitals and among hospital workers.

“These infections occur in men, women, adults, children and persons of all races and sexual orientations,” the statement read, adding that while the particular strain identified in the report had been found in gay men, it had also been found in people who were not gay.

For those who do come down with the disease, there are various treatments, including antibiotics. Preventive measures include frequently cleaning hands, clothes and open wounds. MRSA can cause painful sores, which should be lanced and treated to prevent the disease’s spread.

Jason Overcash, 37, a sales representative who lives near the Castro and is gay, said he was upset by the initial presentation of the report, which he said seemed geared to panic people both inside and out of the Castro.

“The way they presented it, it makes people think if they come here, they’re going to get MRSA,” he said.

You got that right!

That is an experience Mr. Overcash says he knows all too well: he contracted MRSA in 2002, and soon found a lesion on his left buttock. “It got to be like a golf ball in a matter of 36 hours,” he said. He tried three different antibiotic treatments, even as the lesions spread, before finally knocking it out.

Ouch!

“It was horrible, and that’s why I’m super hyper-aware of it,” Mr. Overcash said. “Because I don’t ever want to go through that again.”

Use your soap and water kiddo!


And this is really worth reading....

http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/is-...ew-gay-plague/

So what gives? Where did the media get the idea that a brand new, giant super-bug was eating San Francisco?

Well, much of the blame can be laid squarely at Dr. Diep’s own publicity stunt. It was his sensationalist comments in his press release — written precisely to grab journalists’ attention — that started the panic in the first place. And that panic was fueled even further by his alarmist statements to reporters from Reuters and the San Francisco Chronicle. The Bay Area Reporter described the repercussions of Diep’s incendiary comments this way:

The possible consequences of this news and the irresponsible way it was presented is people could become victims of physical harm because the public is now misinformed that only gay people carry staph. … The potential for anti-gay backlash is real, and has dire consequences for us individually and collectively.

Why did lead researcher Binh An Diep, Ph.D., seem to single gays out in his comments? In the news release Diep said that they are concerned “about a potential spread of this strain into the general population?” Gays are part of the general population. Drug resistant staph is already in the general population. There’s nothing new here. That sort of statement just feeds into the homophobia that is prevalent in this country and perpetuates all the stereotypes this community has been fighting since the advent of AIDS more than 25 years ago.

In sum from the same article.

And the best news is that MRSA is easily preventable. Cover any cuts, scrapes or sores, and wash your hands and shower regularly — ordinary soap and water does the trick. And don’t share personal items — toothbrushes, razer blades, sheets and towels and so forth. Preventing its spread is just that easy.

Soap and water. How easier could it be?

Wash!

And less we forget....

AIDS was passed around for 30-50 years as a heterosexual disease in Africa long before five gay men died in Los Angeles in 1981.

[tymejumper]

Here, as a medical worker is what I know about Staph and MRSA.

Every human being is colonized with Staph. When a baby is born, they are actually free of the Staph bacterium, but become collonized to theri families particular strain of Staph with feeding, touching, etc.

Staph in itself, is not harmful, as I have stated, we all are colonized with it and in fact it helps keep balance with all the other organisims on your skin, such a yeast. The balance of bacteria and fungus keep each other in check.

The problem comes in when you get exposed to someone elses Staph. Especially a cut or on your finger and you pick your nose, you get Staph infection form it. IF your imune system is down, you could become infected with your own Staph, if it got into cut or something, that is how cuts get infected and you get pimples, boils and such.

Generally, antibiotics were used to treat this problem, simple skin infections quite effectively. A few people, usually immune compromised and very young or old would not be able to fight the infection off or it got into their bloodstream and spread throughout their bodies, this is called Septis. Septic Shock Syndrome or blood poisioning are also the same thing, different names.

Treatable with general antibiotics right? Now you have people not taking a full course of drugs, or even just through nature, have resistant bacterium and they die or have to get many different antibiotics to use to kill it. Unfortunately, some types, MRSA is one, are resistant to a lot of antibiotics. THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT IS UNTREATABLE! It means that you have to use something other than Methampicillian. There are many types of drugs that kill it. Unfortunately, it does pray on the weak and the very young or elderly are two classes of people that get it and have a harder time treating it. As for the young lady that died, its probably due to the fact Mom or Dad just 'blew' it off as an infection that would go away with Neosporin and it went Septic on her.

Of course the news loves a big story so they didnt get the facts and blew it out of porportion. Did you know that MRSA is not even clasified by the CDC as a Superbug? Many do not know this, but it is true last I was told by them.

We all pretty much all colonized with the MRSA type Staph anyhow, we fight it off and stay healthy. We dont get infected. I work Geriatrics and I have had 2nd degree burns and 2 tattoos that have never gotten infected from my work and I am around it ALL the time.

This, too is media hype and the way they gathered info is speculative at best. Common sense should tell us that their will be better bugs as we create better drugs for treatment. It's natures way.

They probably noted it in gay men because that is one arena for HIV and what does that do? It destroys your immune system and makes you a host monkey for opportunic diseases(like Staph) Its more likely that HIV patients will go in for treatment if they notice something, or even gay men will go and get checked out as they are more in tuned with education about HIV and may think these skin infections are the beginnig of HIV.

I would like to see the statisitcs of heteros that go in and get treated for this infection. I bet no doctor would say "it's a hetero disease" they would say "it's just a skin infection" and not run tests on it. Bigotry causes doctors to test on gay people because they too can be ignorant and think that gay people are disease carriers, so they run more tests.


Best advice, wash, wash, wash your hands and sores. Go in immediately if it gets infected, dont wait and 'see if it will go away'. Dont touch open wounds on another(no brainer here) and also, MRSA is NOT flesh eating anything! Necrotizing Facitis is a type if Staph, but not all Staph are this.