Superbug Comes to Town

Chicago is home to a quickly spreading and potentially lethal antibiotic resistant bacteria. Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase or KPC was first identified in the U.S. on the east coast in 1999 -- Chicago reported its first case in 2007. The bug has been confined to hospitals and health care facilities, but it easily spreads amongst patients.

In 2009 26 of 54 health facilities reported KPC cases, so far this year there are 37 of 57 facilities. The mean number of patients who tested positive increased from 3 to 10, according to a new survey by Rush University and the Cook County Dept. of Public Health.

KPC is in a bacteria class commonly found on the skin, mouth and intestines. It’s lethal because it produces enzymes that make it resistant to most antibiotics including all penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems and aztreonam.

In a study mentioned KPC infected patients have a high mortality rate and are three times as likely to die. In Brazil there were 163 suspected cases of KPC on Monday where 15 people have died. KPC has spread to 35 states and kills 40 percent of the people it infects. Tigecycline and colistin have proven to be effective, but these antibiotics also have side effects and can be costly.

In the survey 75 percent of the positive tested patients were in nursing homes. The prevention key is for health care workers to wash their hands. Without taking proper contact precautions one can easily spread the infection.

This “superbug” has been compared to MRSA - a similar superbug infection. It was first found 30 years ago and was given little attention because it primarily affected those in hospital wards. Once the bug entered the public it spread uncontrollably. In 2005, 18,000 people died from MRSA, more than AIDS infected patients that year.