A deadly superbug usually associated with hospitals is spreading fast in the community and becoming more resistant to drugs, health chiefs say.
The number of cases of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)among people who have not been treated in hospital hit a record high of 624 last year, more than triple the 173 cases seen in 2007, according to the latest edition of Communicable Diseases Watch, a Department of Health newsletter.
Separately, the Hospital Authority revealed that fewer cases of MRSA could be controlled using antibiotics. The resistance rate had been increasing by about 1 per cent per year and by last year 43 per cent of cases could not be treated with drugs.
'No matter whether it is in the community or in the public hospitals, the MRSA outbreaks are already slightly out of control,' Ho Pak-leung, a University of Hong Kong microbiologist, said. Among elderly people, the fatality rate for MRSA blood poisoning could reach 40 per cent, Ho said.
'You can say that it is a vicious cycle,' Dominic Tsang Ngai-chong, chief infection control officer for the Hospital Authority, said yesterday. 'The more cases of these infections [there are], the more antibiotics have to be used, and it is possible for these bugs to genetically mutate to become stronger and more resistant.
'The use of these medicines should be carefully balanced by the doctors. Our target is to reduce the usage to the minimum level.'