MRSA - Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus is spread
While the waste industry is spreading MRSA contaminated sludge and reclaimed water in the communities, farmers and doctors are being blamed for the misuse of antibiotics. Doctors have not yet made a connection to necrotizing soft tissue infections and sludge biosolids / reclaimed water.
Jim Bynum10/27/2007 Retired safety Consultant Revised 12/23/2007
About 1 in 20 (5%) of the MRSA infected individuals died. When MRSA involves soft tissue infections and progresses to necrotizing fasciitis (i.e. flesh-eating bacteria syndrome, suppurative fasciitis, Fournier's gangrene, and necrotizing erysipelas), the mortality rate increases to as much as 73% for senor citizens.
Some strains are capable of producing a highly heat-stable protein toxin that causes illness in humans. Staphylococci exist in air, dust, sewage, water, milk, and food or on food equipment, environmental surfaces, humans, and animals. Humans and animals are the primary reservoirs. Staphylococci are present in the nasal passages and throats and on the hair and skin of 50 percent or more of healthy individuals. This incidence is even higher for those who associate with or who come in contact with sick individuals and hospital environments. Of the bacterial pathogens causing foodborne illnesses in the U.S. (127 outbreaks, 7,082 cases recorded in 1983), 14 outbreaks involving 1,257 cases were caused by S. aureus. These outbreaks were followed by 11 outbreaks (1,153 cases) in 1984, 14 outbreaks (421 cases) in 1985, 7 outbreaks (250 cases) in 1986 and one reported outbreak (100 cases) in 1987. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap3.html
Nov -- 2007 NIH Press Release. The National Institute of Health (NIH) press release states, "Up until a year ago, most scientists studying S. aureus believed they had narrowed their search for the cause of severe CA-MRSA infections, focusing on the Panton- Valentine leukocidin (PVL) toxin produced by certain strains. But then last year, Dr. Otto and his RML colleagues published a study indicating that PVL does not play a major role in CA-MRSA infections." (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2006/staphtoxin.htm). Now, NIH states, "Newly described proteins in drug-resistant strains of the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium attract and then destroy protective human white blood cells—a key process ensuring that S. aureus survives and causes severe disease, according to scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health."
March 2006 study, In certain patients, an analysis of data showed that the annual incidence of CA-MRSA increased by 250% in 2004 and 500% in 2005 compared with the 2003 rate. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/528623
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections, which are potentially deadly, are now responsible for an estimated 12 million outpatient visits each year for skin infections, said Jeff Hageman, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "MRSA is epidemic in some regions of the country," he said. "The highest rates are in the southern parts of the U.S., including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Texas. We first began noticing MRSA in 1999 when there were four child deaths in Minnesota and North Dakota." MRSA infections are the leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections among hospital patients, and can result in severe and even fatal disease. These infections account for almost 19,000 deaths and more than 94,000 life-threatening illnesses each year in the United States. (Oct. 19,2007) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_56428.html
MRSA infection is now endemic in nursing homes, long-term care facilities, and community hospitals. It's also seen in patients who haven’t been hospitalized, as community-acquired MRSA infections are increasing. Patients most at risk for MRSA infection include immunosuppressed patients, burn patients, intubated patients, and those with central venous catheters, surgical wounds, or dermatitis. Others at risk include those with prosthetic devices, heart valves, and postoperative wound infections. Other risk factors include prolonged hospital stays; extended therapy with multiple or broad-spectrum antibiotics; and close proximity to those colonized or infected with MRSA. Also at risk are patients with acute endocarditis, bacteremia, cervicitis, meningitis, pericarditis, and pneumonia. http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/s/staphylococcal_infection/book-diseases-7b.htm
According to the government's July 2007 HEALTHCARE COST AND UTILIZATION PROJECT, endocarditis, bacteremia, cervicitis, meningitis, pericarditis, and pneumonia are all secondary diagnoses which accounted for about 368,600 hospital stays for infections with MRSA in 2005 http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb35.pdf.
The superbug A nasty staph germ circulating in and out of hospitals produces a poison that can kill pneumonia patients within 72 hours, researchers said on Thursday. "The reason most patients die is that despite killing the bug, PVL toxins already formed continue to digest lung tissue, so we desperately need some way of removing the toxins," Morgan said.
PATHOGENS AND INFECTIOUS TOXIN PROTEINS IN SLUDGE/BIOSOLIDS Studies show EPA and its partners are destroying public health. By 1989, (25) Invasive group A streptococcal, Staphylococcus (MRSA), Clostridium, and E. coli 157 were just beginnng their deadly transformation through the wastewater treatment plants. Only a few people had died from these pathogenic sludge pollutants during the 1980s. In the past 15 years, Invasive group A streptococcal, Staphylococcus, Clostridium, (Necrotizing Fasciitis), and E. coli 157 have become epidemic
WHAT IS NECROTIZING FASCIITIS (MRSA) AND WHY IS IT ON A RAMPAGE THROUGH TUCSON Necrotizing fasciitis is the result of an invasive bacterial infection that destroys deep soft tissue in the body very quickly. As the tissue is invaded and destroyed gas gangrene sets in and the toxic gases generated by the bacteria can create toxic shock causing death within a few days or in the worse cases, a matter of hours. While a number of bacteria formerly known for causing relative mild diseases (such as Streptococcus and Staphylococcus) have taken on the invasive traits in the past 15 years, many writers simply refer to the multiple cast of deadly organisms as the flesh eating bacteria. The literature suggests scientists are puzzled about the nature of these bacteria and how they transformed themselves so quickly into the deadly toxin producing strains.
Research indicated an Air Force document, (13) by Dr. Stephen F. Burgess and Dr. Helen E. Purkitt, dated April 2001, might supply the answer. They state there are specific bacteria that cause necrotizing fasciitis and gas gangrene [Clostridium perfringens (formerly known as Clostridium welchii), Streptococcus and Staphylococcus -- three major foodborne contamination bacteria found in sewage sludge]. The document also indicated South Africa got the bacteria about 1984 and gave the bacteria and antidote to the US government in 1994.
However, the literature shows these super bugs and other are currently being created in our wastewater treatment plants. The literature also shows that primary exposure routes of infections are through wastewater effluents into waterways and waste residual disposal as a fertilizer or soil amendment and bioaersols from disposal sites and soil amendment waste residual compost producing facilities.
In studies done by EPA's David Lewis, et.al. Researchers found that affected residents lived within approximately one kilometer (0.6 miles) of land- application sites and that they generally complained of irritation after exposure to winds blowing from treated fields. Staphylococcus aureus infections, which commonly accompany diaper rash, were found in the skin and respiratory tracts of some individuals. Approximately 25 percent of the individuals surveyed were infected, and two died. The 54 individuals surveyed lived near 10 land-application sites in Alabama, California, Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Texas. S. aureus is commonly found in the lower human colon and tends to invade irritated or inflamed tissue.