Acinetobacter 300% Increase in Hospitals

Posted in These Categories: News of Hospital Acquired Infections

A surge in drug-resistant strains of Acinetobacter, a dangerous type of bacteria that is becoming increasingly common in U.S. hospitals, has been reported In a study published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. These infections attack patients in hospital intensive care units while also plaguing soldiers returning home from the Iraqi war. They often appear as severe pneumonias or bloodstream infections, and require strong drugs to be treated, when they can be stopped at all.

Using data from hospitals around the country, researchers at Extending the Cure- a project of the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Resources for the Future - analyzed trends in resistance to imipenem, an antibiotic often reserved as a last-line treatment The study found that in recent years, there has been a more than 300% increase in the proportion of Acinetobacter cases resistant to the drug.

“The findings are troubling because they suggest this bacteria is becoming resistant to nearly everything in our arsenal,” notes principal investigator Ramanan Laxminarayan. ‘There is a lot of attention on MRSA [methiállin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus], but less on infections caused by bacteria like Acinetobacter, for which there are fewer drugs in the development pipeline. While all drug resistance is of concern, it is particularly worrying in the case of bugs for which we have few treatment options.”

Using data from hospitals around the country, researchers at Extending the Cure- a project of the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Resources for the Future – analyzed trends in resistance to imipenem, an antibiotic often reserved as a last-line treatment The study found that in recent years, there has been a more than 300% increase in the proportion of Acinetobacter cases resistant to the drug.

Medizone International, Inc. (Dually Traded: OTCBB/OTCQB: MZEI)
(http://medizoneint.com)

Medizone International, Inc. is a research and development company engaged in developing its AsepticSure™ System to decontaminate and sterilize hospitals, sports training facilities, schools and other critical infrastructure. A government variant is being developed for bio-terrorism counter measures. Successful decontamination by AsepticSure™ to the 6 log standard or greater has been demonstrated with C.difficile, E coli, Pseudomonas aeruginous, MRSA, VRE and Bacillius subtilis.

Medizone International, Inc.
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Tags: Acinetobacter HAI