Israel Health Ministry Needs Millions to Combat Deadly Bacteria Plague
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel Health Ministry Needs Millions to Combat Deadly Bacteria Plague*
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Arutz News Service
Millions of shekels will be needed to battle a bacterium plague that has
swept through Israeli hospitals over the past month, according to Health
Minister Yaakov Ben-Yizri. The bacterium, klebsiella pneumoniae, has
infected more than 500 people and killed approximately one third of
those who became ill.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Ben-Yizri said that intensive care
units are packed with hospital patients who have been infected and that
more beds are urgently needed.
The bacterium, which appears to be confined to hospitals, strikes
patients with weak immune systems, the elderly and those who are very
ill. Because the Israeli strain has been found to be be resistant to
antibiotics, current medical efforts are focused on a quarantine of
affected patients and increasingly strict sanitation measures in the
nation's hospitals. However, Health Ministry directives for combating
the spread of the bacteria were issued only on Sunday, nearly three
weeks after the dramatic increase in reported instances of infection
became known to ministry officials.
Last week, after warning against a national panic, Minister Ben-Yizri
met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to request 2.5 billion shekels
(US$600,000) of emergency funding to control the infections and to
invest in three new hospitals by 2015. At the time, Ben-Yizri told the
Prime Minister that hospitals are in immediate need of an additional
3,000 beds
Outside Israel, only US hospitals have reported an antibiotic-resistant
strain of the bacterium.
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The Health Ministry, responding to the klebsiella crisis, has
established a coordinating committee to collect and share information
and laboratory services among the nation's hospitals. Professor Yehuda
Carmeli, of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, heads the team, which
has also been tasked with diagnosing and seeing to isolation of patients
infected with the bacterium.
The resistant strain of the klebsiella bacterium, which is not new to
Israeli hospitals, appeared in recent months and seems to have infected
mostly those who were hospitalized for over 25 days. Normally found in
the mouth, skin and intestines, Klebsiella pneumoniae is a member of the
Enterobacteriaceae family. The germ often causes hospital-acquired
urinary tract and burn wound infections, but is also known to cause
bacterial pneumonia. Its identification is complicated and can involve a
large number of tests.
Outside Israel, only US hospitals have reported an antibiotic-resistant
strain of the bacterium. In Europe, the Klebsiella bacterium is still
responding to conventional treatments.
Although Health Ministry Director-General Professor Avi Yisraeli told
reporters only very ill patients in hospitals are at risk, the public
has reacted to the news reports of the infections by avoiding hospitals
altogether. Over the past few days, emergency rooms in Israeli hospitals
have been nearly empty, leading doctors and Health Ministry
spokespersons to warn of the dangers of avoiding treatment when necessary.