The NIH (National Institutes of Health) Hospitals have reported the seventh case of a patient death from a superbug.
This infectious germ, a highly resistant form of Klebsiella pneumonia, has been an ongoing issue for the NIH hospitals for the past year or two, but they had thought they eradicated it. Now, another case proves that the bug is not yet conquered.
Resistant germs (bacteria) represent a danger to all of us here in the U.S. and around the world. If our antibiotics are incapable of treating an infection, that we will be back in the 1800’s, without an effective treatment for infections that will likely run their course and cause increased numbers of death and disease.
Of course, superbugs have been around for some time, witness C difficile diarrhea and MRSA (resistant staph infections), but this germ is completely incapable of being treated by any known antibiotic and shows the limits of our abilities.
Reducing antibiotic use for unnecessary infections will reduce the risk of such superbugs and is something we can all try to do, by avoiding antibiotics for viral illnesses that do not benefit from treatment.