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Ella Lee

A hospital patient has been killed by a new strain of superbug that is immune to antibiotics.

 It is the first time the bug has been detected in Hong Kong, and was a direct consequence of antibiotics abuse, a doctor warned.

 The patient, admitted to Queen Mary Hospital with a fever, died despite two weeks of intensive drug treatment to combat the vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA).

 It had previously been found only in Japan, the United States and France.

 University of Hong Kong microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said that when the bacteria spread, no antibiotic was effective and infections became untreatable.

 'We are getting into the terminal stage. It is very dangerous; the bacteria have broken the last defence,' he said.

 Doctors around the world are worried about the excessive use of antibiotics producing drug-resistant bacteria which mutate as they fight for survival.

 'Ten years ago, Hong Kong for the first time found Streptococcus pneumonia had become resistant to penicillin. Now, 70 per cent are penicillin-resistant,' Professor Yuen said.

 'Now we've discovered our first VRSA case. We can't wait until things get worse. The bacteria must have mutated; it is time to do something.'  Staphylococcus aureus is a virulent bacteria which lives on human skin. It enters the body through wounds and causes serious infections of the skin, soft tissues, bones and joints.

 The organism spreads through direct contact and can lead to pneumonia and the fatal bacteremia, which has a 40 per cent mortality rate.

 Some strains of Staphylococcus aureus, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), became resistant to the antibiotic methicillin and cloxacillin in the late 1970s.

 Doctors have since then relied on vancomycin as the final weapon in their defence arsenal.

 The middle-aged woman killed by the superbug was admitted to Queen Mary Hospital in mid-1998 after a prolonged high fever. She was also suffering from cancer.

 A medical assault using all kinds of antibiotics failed to kill the bacteria.

 The medical team was shocked when it found the vancomycin injections failed. The woman died from bacteremia.

 Professor Yuen said doctors were left with only experimental drugs in the fight against VRSA. Their effectiveness was still uncertain.

 The new strain of superbug was more dangerous than vancomycin-resistant Enterococci. Enterococci, bacteria in the gut, are less virulent.

 But merely reducing the excessive use of vancomycin would not help eradicate VRSA. 'We have to solve the problem from the root. If there is no MRSA, there would be no VRSA. It is simple logic. We have to reduce use of all antibiotics,' Professor Yuen said.

 'Patients need to be alerted. They should not seek antibiotics for a quick cure. It is an issue for all doctors and patients.'  The superbug was first found in Japan in 1997, when a boy's infected surgical wound did not respond to 29 days of vancomycin treatment. Three other cases have been reported in the US and one in France.



First SAR case of drug-resistant infection brings warning on abuse of