Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases
Superbug hits Korea, infects two in hospital
December 10, 2010
Joongang News Service
For the first time, Korea had two patients become infected with a
bacterium called NDM-1 CRE, a so-called “superbacterium” for its
resistance to most antibiotics.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday that the two
patients, a man in his 50s with lung disease and a woman in her 70s
with diabetes, are being treated after curing them of the
superbacterium infection.
Two other patients in the same hospital are also suspected of infection
and are undergoing tests.
The ministry said neither patient had ever traveled abroad. They have
been in the same hospital for a long time.
“Ordinary people don’t have much of a risk of being infected with a
superbacterim,” the ministry said. “In most cases, the bacteria are
transmitted when people have been hospitalized for a long time or their
immune systems get significantly weakened.”
“Furthermore, we have two antibiotics that work against the bacteria,
Colistin and Tigecycline,” the ministry said.
Doctors say symptoms of NDM-1 CRE are urinary tract infections and
pneumonia. NDM-1 CRE has killed one person in Europe.
According to the ministry, the bacteria doesn’t cause any problems if
they reside in the intestines, but if they reach the blood or organs,
they create enzymes that hinder antibiotics’ efficacy.
To prevent more cases in hospitals, the Korea Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said yesterday that it will order 1,189
hospitals with at least 100 beds to launch emergency centers to prevent
the bacterium infection. The center is investigating how the first two
patients became infected.
Originally discovered in India in 2008, NDM-1 CRE has been found in 180
people worldwide. As of August, there were 70 confirmed cases in India,
73 in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and 37 cases in the United Kingdom. The
only fatality was in Belgium.
“Most previous patients infected with NDM-1 CRE visited India or had
surgeries in hospitals in India,” said Lee Yeong-seon, director of the
Division of Antimicrobial Resistance at the Korea Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. The first patient in 2008 was a Swedish
national infected during a surgery in New Delhi.”
Lee said if a carrier with NDM-1 CRE has a healthy immune system, he
could show no symptoms and the bacteria could die off.
“After we saw the spread of the bacterium was fairly fast, we decided
to list NDM-1 CRE on our epidemic list on Nov. 1,” Lee said.
Lee Eui-chong, a doctor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at
Seoul National University Hospital, warned that the two antibiotics
don’t always work in combating the bacteria.
“Colistin, one of the medicines, has high toxicity, so if a person has
low tolerance for the toxicity, doctors can’t use it,” the doctor said.
“Tigecycline is sometimes unusable for different genes of the
bacterium.”
“As there is no other way to fight the bacterium except the two
antibiotics, the superbug is a serious matter for us,” Lee said. “It is
highly important to block the virus from entering Korea as fast as
possible.”