Supergerms! Bacteria That Antibiotics Cannot Kill!

Strains of bacteria that are resistant to the most powerful antibiotics have been found in Tokyo, Michigan and New York City!

Dr. Sarah Rawstron, an Infectious Disease Pediatrician from Downstate Medical Center, is an expert on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. On Friday, May 28, 1999 she spoke to the Pediatric Working Group. This issue of the PWG Newsletter summarizes the information she presented.

Bacteria that used to be treatable with antibiotics (also called antimicrobials) are now problematic because of resistance. As parents of HIV+ children we understand the idea of resistance to drug therapy. We are familiar with the human immunodeficiency virus' ability to mutate and become resistant to antiviral drugs. Antibiotic resistance is similar in its origin: misuse or overuse of antimicrobials results in bacteria which are resistant to those agents. If one sort of bacteria, such as enterococcus, becomes resistant to a specific antimicrobial drug, it is possible to transfer that resistance to related species of bacteria, such as pneumococcus and gonococcus, and then all of these organisms will be harder to kill.

Unfortunately, antibiotic resistance is a problem for the whole population. The resistant bacteria that your child's negative playmate contracts can be passed to your immuno-compromised child who may suffer from the "supergerm" much more than the playmate did.

Four things have contributed to the current state of antibiotic resistance:

1. Antibiotics are used unnecessarily and so bacteria become stronger. This is the case when antibiotics are used for viral infections such as a cold, some ear and eye infections and bronchitis, all of which antibiotics can do nothing to make better. Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections.

2. Antibiotics are not used correctly even when they are needed. This is typically something like not finishing all the pills in a prescription. Antibiotics usually work very quickly and within 24 hours the patient feels better. If s/he quits taking the medicine earlier than s/he should have, not finishing the whole prescribed course, the bacteria which caused the infection will not all be killed and the ones that survive will be stronger and more able to withstand the next dose of that antibiotic.

3. Antibiotics are used prophylactically for more and more diseases.

4. The modern hospital and nursing home environments have become breeding grounds for antimicrobial resistance.

HIV+ children are especially dependent on antibiotics to treat and prevent diseases that the rest of the population hasn't even heard of. If these antibiotics are no longer effective, what will happen to our children?