Killer bacteria may get nailed

Antibacterial resistance is a worldwide problem.

The World Health Organisation warned earlier this year that in the near future people could die from a minor scratch or be refused a simple operation because of the risk of infection.

The WHO said that very few antibiotic drugs had been developed in the past 30 years.

But now a Dutch company, Micreos, has developed a drug, Stapheket, that has been shown in lab tests to kill the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium, which has become impervious to the antibiotics presently in use.

Staphylococcus aureus bacteria can cause pneumonia, and skin and bone infections, and can be spread in hospitals from patient to patient if there is the slightest chink in infection control.

Micreos claims that because the new drug works differently to current antibiotics it is unlikely that bacteria will become resistant to it.

Stapheket mimics the action of a phage that replicates inside bacteria and kills them in the process. The drug was shown to kill bacteria in vitro and was effective in five of six patients with skin infections when applied topically. Clinical trials are beginning.

The CEO of Micreos, Mark Offerhaus, said “With the introduction of Stapheket we enter a new era in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, targeting only the unwanted bacteria. This is a far more logical and elegant approach.

“Millions of people stand to benefit.”

Because of the growing problem of drug-resistant bacteria doctors have urged people not to take antibiotics for flu, which is caused by viruses, against which antibiotics are ineffective.

The professor of infectious diseases at the University of Cape Town, Marc Mendelson, said South Africa had reached the end of the antibiotics era and people had died in every major hospital because of antibiotic-resistant infections.

“About half of all antibiotic use worldwide is inappropriate,” he said.

Under his leadership Groote Schuur Hospital was able to reduce antibiotic use by almost 20% by assigning specialists to monitor and train doctors in prescribing antibiotics.

Discovery Health medical benefits scheme is monitoring antibiotic usage in private hospitals and alerts them when usage starts to become too high.

Source The Times Live