Nosocomial infection medical therapy

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

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Medical Therapy

Among the categories of bacteria most known to infect patients are the category MRSA (resistant strain of S. aureus), member of Gram-positive bacteria and Acinetobacter (A. baumannii), which is Gram-negative. While antibiotic drugs to treat diseases caused by Gram-positive MRSA are available, few effective drugs are available for Acinetobacter. Acinetobacter bacteria are evolving and becoming immune to existing antibiotics, so in many cases, polymyxin-type antibacterials need to be used. "In many respects it’s far worse than MRSA," said a specialist at Case Western Reserve University.

Another growing disease, especially prevalent in New York City hospitals, is the drug-resistant, Gram-negative Klebsiella pneumoniae. An estimated more than 20% of the Klebsiella infections in Brooklyn hospitals "are now resistant to virtually all modern antibiotics, and those supergerms are now spreading worldwide.

The bacteria, classified as Gram-negative because of their reaction to the Gram stain test, can cause severe pneumonia and infections of the urinary tract, bloodstream, and other parts of the body. Their cell structures make them more difficult to attack with antibiotics than Gram-positive organisms like MRSA. In some cases, antibiotic resistance is spreading to Gram-negative bacteria that can infect people outside the hospital. "For Gram-positives we need better drugs; for Gram-negatives we need any drugs," said Dr. Brad Spellberg, an infectious-disease specialist at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and the author of Rising Plague, a book about drug-resistant pathogens.