Intensive care units ‘pose serious superbug threat’

HOSPITAL intensive care units may pose a serious superbug threat, a study showed yesterday.

Scientists warned of an "unexpectedly high" level of transmission of bacteria between intensive care patients.

Many of the bugs were resistant to several antibiotics. Often it appeared to be ventilation equipment itself that was spreading the bacteria.

The Swedish researchers found that 70% of those they studied were colonised with bugs caught from other patients in their unit.

The study focused on 20 intensive care patients at Huddinge University Hospital in Stockholm. All had required mechanical ventilation for at least three days.

A team led by Professor Charlotta Edlund, from the Karolinska Institute, took swabs from the patient's airways and analysed the genetic fingerprints of bacteria grown from them.

By seeing which patients harboured the same strains it was possible to trace the transmission patterns.

The scientists investigated the transmission of several strains of Staphylococcus bacteria, called CoNS.

These are the third most common cause of hospital infections.

Seventeen of the patients were colonised by CoNS during their hospital stay. In six cases, the bacteria had colonised the lower airways after the patient was ventilated suggesting that the procedure itself had introduced the bacteria.

A total of 14 individuals had either passed on a bacterial strain to another patient, or received one from another patient.

In one case, bacteria appeared to have passed from one patient to another who was only admitted after the first was discharged. This implied that the bugs had survived in the ward either on staff or other patients.

Many of the bacteria were antibiotic resistant, said the researchers. A total of 21% of the strains were resistant to six antibiotics, 34% to at least five, and 59% to at least four.

Of antibiotics: 95% were resistant to penicillin, 86% to oxacillin, 485 to erythromycin, 42% to clindamycin, 54% to gentamicin, and 66% to ciprofloxacin.

None were resistant to the vancomycin, the "last resort" antibiotic used to treat the dangerous superbug MRSA.

The scientists wrote: "Local guidelines for antibiotic use, close co-operation with infectious diseases specialists and restrictions with invasive treatment are strategies that can improve infection control and lower the incidence of hospital infections.

"Hand hygiene among hospital staff is also an important factor for preventing these infections."