Sludge Watch ==> Superbugs could be untreatable

[Maureen Reilly]

http://www.thedaily.com.au:80/news/2008/apr/11/su/


Superbugs could be untreatable, experts warn
11 April  2008
By Carolyn Tucker

Antibiotic resistant infections are becoming increasingly common with 
experts fearing some could become untreatable unless new antibiotics are 
developed.

That was the grim prognosis presented to The Australasian Society of 
Infectious Diseases conference on the Sunshine Coast last weekend.

The director of microbiology for Pathology Queensland, Dr Graeme Nimmo 
conducted a seven-year study into the prevalence of methicillin-resistant 
staphylococcus (MRSA) among outpatients at Queensland hospitals.

The results showed there had been a steady increase in the numbers 
presenting with MRSA.

Director of Infectious Diseases at Nambour General Hospital and one of the 
conference convenors, Dr David Sowden, said these infections were once 
rarely seen outside hospital wards but numerous studies indicated they were 
on the march.

“There are other studies that show this is happening country-wide and it’s 
becoming a problem in other countries such as North America, with this 
particular infection being found in the community.

“One of the early theories was that people who had been in hospitals were 
taking it out into the community but it now looks like it’s a strain that 
has evolved by itself.”

Dr Sowden said he had some seen some limited examples of this occurring the 
Sunshine Coast.

He said it could lead to people developing soft tissue infections such as 
boils, which were a nuisance but not particularly harmful to a patient’s 
health.

At the other end of the spectrum, he said some patients with staphylococcus 
infections could develop septicemia or pneumonia, which could be 
life-threatening.

Dr Sowden said hospitals could institute isolation procedures when these 
bacterial infections were detected, but it was more difficult to tackle in 
the broader community.

He said medical practitioners were having to turn to different antibiotics, 
as strains became resistant to once effective treatments and it was a matter 
of considerable concern that no new antibiotics were being development.

“Once we’ve gone through what’s currently available there’s nothing new on 
the horizon,” he said.

“Pharmaceutical companies are not spending a lot on the development of 
antibiotics – presumably because it is time consuming and are very expensive 
to develop and get the product out there.”

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http://www.precaution.org/lib/08/ht080221.htm



Rachel's Democracy & Health News #947
"Environment, health, jobs and justice--Who gets to decide?"
Thursday, February 21, 2008
"Conventional sewage treatment skims off solids for landfill disposal,
then feeds the liquid waste to sewage-degrading bacteria. The end
result is around 5 billion pounds of bacteria-rich slurry, or waste
sludge, each year. Around 35 percent of this is incinerated or put in
a landfill. Close to 65 percent is recycled as fertilizer, much of it
ending up on croplands.

Weber is now investigating how fertilizer derived from human sewage
may contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes. "We've
done a good job designing our treatment plants to reduce conventional
contaminants," he says. "Unfortunately, no one has been thinking of
DNA as a contaminant." In fact, sewage treatment methods used at the 
country's 18,000-odd wastewater plants could actually affect the
resistance genes that enter their systems.

Every tested strain in a dirt sample proved resistant to multiple
antibiotics. Most treatment plants, Weber explains, gorge a relatively
small number of sludge bacteria with all the liquid waste they can
eat. The result, he found, is a spike in antibiotic-resistant
organisms. "We don't know exactly why," he says, "but our findings
have raised an even more important question."



Is the jump in resistance genes coming from a population explosion in the 
resistant enteric, or intestinal, bacteria coming into the sewage plant? Or 
is it coming from sewage-digesting sludge bacteria that are taking up the 
genes from incoming bacteria? The answer is important because sludge 
bacteria are much more likely to thrive and spread their resistance genes 
once the sludge is discharged into rivers (in treated wastewater) and onto 
crop fields (as slurried fertilizer). "