美国国家公共电台 NPR Federal Efforts To Control Rare And Deadly Bacteria Working

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The federal government set up a network last year to identify deadly germs called nightmare bacteria. Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that network is helping¹ control these germs. And the CDC says the system would be even better if more hospitals and doctors would send in suspicious samples. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE²: The system focuses on bacteria that live primarily in the gut³ and that are resistant⁴ to most antibiotics⁶, especially the drugs of last resort known as carbapenems. Dr. Jason Newland, an infectious disease specialist at St. Louis Children's Hospital, says he mutters under his breath when he encounters these germs in his young patients.

JASON NEWLAND: I mean, I hate to say it, but I'm taking care of children where there hasn't been an antibiotic⁵ to use.

HARRIS: He will improvise⁷ treatments as best he can, but nationally about half of all patients who get sick as a result of these germs do die. Prevention is the best strategy. So last year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established a network of labs and public health experts to identify cases early. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's deputy director, says in the first nine months of 2017 the network flagged more than 4,300 samples containing these carbapenem-resistant bacteria, including 221 samples that are rare varieties.

ANNE SCHUCHAT: We have found a lot of these scary bacteria around the country. But we found them in ones and twos and not everywhere. And so there's a chance to keep them from becoming widespread.

HARRIS: Finding these germs, which she calls nightmare bacteria, is just the first stage of the new network.

SCHUCHAT: And then once we found them, we had staff support the facilities in a SWAT team approach to evaluate the infection control practices and to snuff out the infection.

HARRIS: The hope is that by intervening before there's a full-fledged outbreak, health officials can keep these bacteria in check. Schuchat says this is especially important because these germs can pass their resistance genes⁸ on to other types of bacteria.

SCHUCHAT: The good news is those resistance genes have not yet spread to all the other germs in the patient population. We have time to stop them from becoming common.

HARRIS: Schuchat says the effort would be stronger if more hospitals and doctors participated. Infectious disease expert Jason Newland praises the CDC effort. But he says these germs readily cross international borders, and antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in less affluent⁹ countries.

NEWLAND: So we have to be doing this not only in the U.S. but across the world because this problem is definitely worldwide.

HARRIS: Indeed, at least some of the cases in the United States were among people who had surgery overseas, Anne Schuchat says.

SCHUCHAT: And so if you have had a health care procedure outside the country, you should tell your doctor about that if you're sick.

HARRIS: Details of this new effort are published in the CDC's Morbidity¹⁰ and Mortality Weekly Report. Richard Harris, NPR News.

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