Superbugs will kill you part three: It came from India

As reported back in 2008 by Worried Dad, the MRSA staph infection has been called a superbug that appears to be resistant to all known antibiotics, except fire.

Then just a few weeks ago, this blog reported on the spread of a new superbug, c. diff, another nasty bug that will be stopped by nothing in its quest to kill you dead.

If anyone is still alive enough to read this, it appears that there is a new contender for "the microorganism that will destroy humanity" comes to us from India -- or does it??

In a challenge to the "there is no bad publicity" maxim, the new superbug has been given the name "New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase," or NDM-1. New Delhians are not amused, and point out that the bug is really a close match to another superbug that's been making the rounds of US hospitals and back alleys for quite some time.

However, a spate of infected patients that appear to have originated in India have been spreading the stuff around the globe. It seems that globe-trotting healthcare bargain hunters have been going to India for cheap operations, getting some NDM-1 as a free souvenir, and then spreading Armageddon to the four corners of the Earth.

Basically, the NDM-1 stuff is resistant to all known antibiotics. People in White Coats blame other people in White Coats for over-prescribing antibiotics when we didn't need them, and now we need them, but they don't work anymore and we're all going to die. Also, you should wash your hands a lot and bathe nightly in Purell.

Superbugs will kill you in the hospital

Just when you thought the only kind of super bug that hospitals were trying to kill you with was Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), it turns out that they are adding a new one to the mix: Clostridium difficile, or C. diff as we say in the 'hood.

The Washington Post reports that C. diff is sickening about 3 million people a year, usually after they visit a hospital or clinic.

According to the article:

It can cause severe diarrhea and inflammation of the colon. It is deadly in up to one in 40 cases, particularly when it strikes the elderly and infirm, and contributes to 15,000 to 30,000 deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Recent studies have shown a 25% higher incidence of C. diff than the better-known and more publicity savvy MRSA in 28 community hospitals tested by people in White Coats.

Once again, the main culprits appear to be over-prescription of antibiotics, and hospital staff not washing their hands:

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, the C. diff germ has been cultured from bed rails, floors, toilets and windowsills, and it can remain in hospital rooms for up to 40 days after infected patients have been discharged. Health-care workers can hasten the spread. One study found C. diff on the hands of almost 60 percent of doctors and nurses caring for infected patients - a percentage experts said could be reduced dramatically if they washed their hands thoroughly with soap and water between patients.

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Can Kill You

Staph infections are on the rise. Antibiotics don't work on it. According to a very
worry-inducing article in Parents Magazine

In some cases, the germ can turn a tiny skin wound into a potentially life-threatening boil or abscess. In others, it morphs into a systemic infection that causes deadly forms of pneumonia, as well as muscle, bone, and joint disease. What's most alarming is the fact that this form of staph doesn't respond to commonly used antibiotics -- and it seems to be growing ever more virulent.

In a few years, MRSA has turned into the single most common identifiable cause of skin and soft-tissue infections in emergency rooms, reports the New England Journal of Medicine. One recent study, conducted in 11 cities, found that MRSA caused nearly 60 percent of skin infections treated in hospital emergency rooms.

Although the subhead at the top of the article claims that it will tell you how to "protect your child from this potentially deadly germ," it basically says that we're all doomed.

Beyond washing your hands a lot,

there's not much parents can do -- except get used to the many unanswered questions that still surround MRSA. Alyson Martin closely watches over baby Heather -- now 14 months old -- but she has come to terms with the fact that she'll probably never know how or why her infant contracted MRSA: "It's a mystery I'm just going to have to live with."