The patient, who was 20 years old, was hospitalized ...

Next >> << "Superbug"? Researchers at the University of Buffalo have expressed concern over the new ones are recognized, it is much more powerful version of the common bacteria that appeared in the U.S. "Historically, in Western countries, the classical strains of Klebsiella

pneumonia infection resulted mainly in patients hospitalized patients receiving missile systems at risk, "said Thomas Russo, MD, professor of medicine at the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and director of the department of infectious diseases. "But in the last 10 to 15 years old, he started a new version of the cause of community-acquired infections in young, healthy people," he says. "This option can lead to serious, life-threatening invasive infections and can spread to other organs from the original source of infection."

Perhaps most important, says Russo, hypervirulent strains are Klebsiella

pneumonia had the potential to become very resistant to antibiotics, such as

Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia classic. "These hypervirulent strains of these" superbugs "in anticipation," he says. "If they become resistant to antibiotics, it will be difficult if not impossible to treat."

With recent funding from the National Institutes of Health under the program to fund high-risk, high reward research, Rousseau and his UB colleagues are studying a new variant of Microbiology

Klebsiella pneumonia, in order to identify genes that make it hypervirulent, so they can figure out how to stop it in its path. "Infections caused by highly resistant bacteria has become increasingly problematic," says Russo. "We are constantly threatened by the" post-antibiotic "era. The combination of a bacterium that is both highly virulent and resistant to antibiotics is double trouble. "

Concern of researchers due to the fact that classical Klebsiella pneumonia is a type of bacteria that are readily available mobile genetic units called plasmids, which contain several genes that provide a high level of antimicrobial resistance. "This, in particular, why we are concerned," says Russo. "We know that this bacterium has the potential to acquire these plasmids, and it almost certainly will."

He notes that the majority of bacteria that were resistant to most or all drugs currently do not usually infect healthy members of the community. "What is alarming about the hypervirulent pneumonia Klebsiella, that they have the potential to infect healthy people," says Russo. "If this hypervirulent bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, we have significant problems in management. We hope that our study and others can prevent such a possibility. " Although the new

hypervirulent variant was first seen only in The strattera dosing Asia-Pacific region, it has now been found in several cities in North America, including Buffalo, and in Europe, Canada, Israel and South Africa. UB researchers describe it as "not recognized" as physicians and microbiology laboratories. The disease most often manifests as an abscess of the liver, which is not typical for healthy patients. "This new version provides unique features and scary: the first is the tendency to infect the young, healthy people in the community, and the second is its unique propensity to metastasize to other parts of the body," says Russo. "This applies to sites outside of the original source of infection, such as the lungs, central nervous system and eyes, which can lead to vision loss. If the infection spreads to the brain, there can be damage to the brain as well. From 10 to 30 percent of cases are fatal. "

In Buffalo, this version of the hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumonia

has been detected in healthy, young man several years ago. The patient, who was 20 years old, was hospitalized for several months before making a full recovery. These cases concern the entire international community of infectious diseases. Currently, in most cases hypervirulent

Klebsiella pneumonia to decide if we consider aggressively with antibiotics and drainage of abscess, however, some infections, despite optimal treatment, resulting in permanent morbidity and death, says Russo. He notes that the potential for error adding acquire drug resistance in a matter of urgency to this work. Rousseau said that microbiology laboratories should be aware that an important characteristic of these hypervirulent strains (also known as hypermucoviscous strains) that the bacterial colonies grown on solid surfaces in general microbiology laboratories stretching tool, called the cycle of vaccination, it forms a sticky "string" greater than 5 millimeters in length. Team UB Rousseau is now beginning to develop a clearer picture of this enormous bacterial enemy. In November, he and his colleagues published

PLoS ONE paper, showed that the hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumonia acquire iron more effectively than conventional strains of K. pneumonia. "With NIH grant, we hope to further clarify the exact details of the bacterial factors that are responsible for the hypervirulent

Klebsiella pneumonia acquire iron more effectively," he says. "The purpose of this direction is that this iron acquisition factors had a hypervirulent

Klebsiella pneumonia would provide a therapeutic vaccine or as a goal, so we can better treat or prevent infection."

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