Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas Quarantines ICU Due to Superbug Outbreak
Posted on November 2, 2007
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An antibiotic-resistant microbe known as acinetobacter has infected six patients at St. Joseph’s Mercy Health Center in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Four of those infected are patients in the Intensive Care Unit.
Doctors observed an “unusual cluster” of acinetobacter infections in the ICU, and instituted a quarantine at 9:30 p.m. on November 1, 2007, Fox News reported. Doctors are restricting visitation, canceling elective surgeries, and have halted all new admissions to the ICU. Hospital staff are not confined to the unit as long as they don protective gear when treated affected patients.
Acinetobacter is similar to the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in that it resists treatment by the most common antibiotics. Untreated, acinetobacter can cause pneumonia and skin infections. The six patients at St. Josephs are receiving intravenous antibiotics and doctors believe they are responding well. There is no word on how the infection was introduced to the patients.
The Centers for Disease Control and the Arkansas State Health Department will send representatives to Hot Springs to ensure that the acinetobacter outbreak is properly contained.
Acinetobacter infections are rarely found outside hospital settings, and usually affect only those with already compromised immune systems. The acinetobacter bug is an ongoing concern in the medical community because drug resistance among various strains appears to be increasing. The bacterium can spread easily, and some strains may survive on dry surfaces for weeks.
Although healthy people do not usually become infected with the acinetobacter bacterium, many carry it on their skin. As with MRSA, good hygiene practices and thorough surface disinfection can help limit the spread of the potentially lethal pathogen acinetobacter.
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