- LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
- A bacterial skin infection that does not respond to standard antibiotics
is showing up for the first time in gay men, raising concerns that it could
spread further, a Los Angeles health official said on Tuesday.
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- The virulent strain of drug-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus, or staph, has caused symptoms like abscesses and boils in a still
undetermined number of gay men, as well as other people, said Dr. Elizabeth
Bancroft, a medical epidemiologist with the Los Angeles County Health Department
who is leading an investigation.
-
- "We don't yet have a sense of the magnitude of the
problem," she said.
-
- Due to the overuse and frequent misuse of antibiotics
-- like using them to treat colds, flu and other viral illnesses -- many
bacteria have learned to outsmart the drugs and have consequently become
much more difficult to treat.
-
- The infection showing up in Los Angeles does not respond
to oral antibiotics like penicillin or even Cipro, and some patients have
had to be hospitalized and given powerful intravenous antibiotics, according
to the health department.
-
- The staph infection usually needs skin to skin contact
to spread, but records show that it can be contracted in damp, warm environments
like steam rooms, Bancroft said.
-
- "The number of reports has been rising since the
end of the summer ... but doctors don't expect to see (staph) in healthy
individuals, they expect to see it in elderly patients who are in and out
of nursing homes," Bancroft said.
-
- She said the health department only recently determined
that the infections were the same strain of bacteria.
-
- Past outbreaks of the antibiotic-resistant skin infection
have been seen in groups such as athletes and intravenous drug users who
live in close quarters and share things like gym equipment and towels.
-
- An infection within the gay community is of concern because
these men might have more skin-to-skin contact that could make it easier
for the staph infection to spread, Bancroft said.
-
- To find out, the Los Angeles health department is launching
one study to asses the risk of transmission in the gay community and another
to determine the prevalence of the disease.
-
- For now, Los Angeles area doctors are being alerted to
the infection trend and encouraged to do cultures of suspected cases.
-
- Bancroft said the county does not yet have the data to
instruct doctors to change their initial antibiotic treatment regimen.
-
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