Excessive antibiotic use is actually making staph infections stronger

Thursday, April 28, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: superbugs, MRSA, over-prescribing antibiotics

---

(NaturalNews) Chronic overuse of antibiotics around the world has led to a phenomenon of traditional medicine's making: The very drugs developed to battle bacterial infections are actually making bacteria stronger and unresponsive to antibiotic therapy.

As reported by Med Page Today, this is increasingly true of antibiotic-resistant staph associated with cardiac device-related bacterial infections. Methicillin-resistant infections that are related to cardiac implantable electronic device leads that have to be explanted are especially on the rise, according to a single-center study.

Staphylococcal bacteria species are the most common pathogens affecting patients who have received implantable cardioverter defibrillators and pacemakers, the site reported, making up nearly 69 percent of infections. About half, or 49.4 percent, of the staphylococci were resistant to methicillin, which accounted for nearly 34 percent of all infections.

Less common in occurrence were infections caused by streptococci (2.5 percent), enterococci (4.2 percent), anaerobes (1.6 percent), fungi (0.9 percent) and mycobacteria species (0.2 percent), according to Dr. Khaldoun G. Tarakji, MD, MPH, of the Cleveland Clinic, leader of the research team.

"The rates of methicillin resistance appear to be higher than those reported from the preceding decade," the research team wrote in their study, published online in the journal JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology.

Highly resistant

"Overall, these signals of increasing methicillin resistance organisms may reflect the common inappropriate use of broad spectrum antibiotics and suggest acquisition of culprit organisms in health care environments," the research team suggested.

Med Page Today reported further:

Tarakji's study included 816 consecutive patients who had their transvenous device leads extracted between 2000 and 2011. Pathogens were detected in 86.8% of patients.

Pocket infections made up half of all device-related infections and were split evenly between those occurring within and beyond 1 year after pocket manipulation. Late-onset pocket infections were related to coagulase-negative staphylococci that were likely acquired at the time of device placement. A previous report linked pocket bleeding to post-implant infection.

No matter the pathogen species, the researchers noted that "the eradication of infection requires complete removal of the devices and all lead material, with inherent risks to surgical or transvenous extractions."

This isn't the first body of research to suggest that over-prescribing and overuse of antibiotics is causing a rise in so-called "superbugs" that are highly resistant.

In July 2014, NaturalNews editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reported that the growth of superbugs is exploding across the U.S. and around the world, as well:

Drug-resistant superbug infections have reached near-epidemic levels across U.S. hospitals, with an alarming 500% increase now documented in a study just published in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (the Journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America).

MRSA showing up in our food, too

Lead author of that study, Dr. Joshua Thaden, warned, "This dangerous bacteria is finding its way into healthcare facilities nationwide... A CRE epidemic is fast approaching... Even this marked increase likely underestimates the true scope of the problem given variations in hospital surveillance practices."

In addition, Adams reported, the study also found that an astonishing 94 percent of CRE infections were caused by healthcare activities or hospital procedures.

A year later we reported that MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was fast becoming a major health concern, and for good reason: "The superbug is a drug-resistant strain of Staph that infects hundreds of thousands of Americans annually, ultimately killing several thousand of them -- and that's not even taking into consideration the many cases that aren't included in government incidence statistics," we wrote.

Researchers in the United Kingdom examined more than 100 pre-packaged fresh meat products from farms throughout the country that were sold in UK supermarkets. They found that two pork samples – one from sausage and another from minced pork – tested positive for MRSA.

Sources:

MedPageToday.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

Science.NaturalNews.com