WA: Federal authorities 'unreceptive' to staph concerns: doctor

AAP General News (Australia)
04-17-2006
WA: Federal authorities 'unreceptive' to staph concerns: doctor

EDS: Reissuing, restoring second 'i' in doctor's surname in third par.





By Jo Prichard

PERTH, April 17 AAP - Federal health authorities have been "unreceptive" to concerns
about an evolving epidemic of new strains of golden staph, a senior public health official
says.

Dr Keryn Christiansen, of Royal Perth Hospital (RPH), says community acquired methicillan
resistant staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA, is increasing for unknown reasons in some
parts of Australia and particularly Western Australia.

Dr Christiansen and co-authors of a study published in this month's Australian Medical
Journal, surveyed 2,600 golden staph isolates (germs) collected from around Australia.

Nationally, the appearance of the CA-MRSA strain rose from 4.7 per cent to 7.3 per
cent of the sample, compared with similar surveys in 2000 and 2002.

WA had a quarter of all national cases of CA-MRSA, between July 2004 and February 2005.

The article refers to the issue as an "evolving epidemic".

But Dr Christiansen, head of microbiology and infectious diseases at RPH, says she
has had trouble drawing the issue to the attention of federal authorities.

"Unfortunately we've been unable to engage the federal government in this," she told AAP.

"They've got other things on their agenda like pandemic flu and bio-terrorism and they're
really putting a lot of money into that and not looking at this."

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA), or Golden Staph, has long plagued hospital
patients but other virulent related strains are now infecting people who have had no hospital
contact.

"In the past when we've seen the resistant strains, we've seen them in hospitals and
they've been resistant to many, many antibiotics," said Dr Christiansen.

"What we're seeing now is something completely different.

"These patients have had no contact with hospitals, have never acquired these organisms
from hospital contact and when you look at the organism genetically, they are quite distinct
from the hospital variety.

"Our other concern is that some of these strains contain a toxin called Panton-Valentine
leukocidin (PVL), and this toxin actually breaks down white blood cells."

Dr Christiansen said they were not sure why the number of cases in WA was so high,
but the state had a rigorous reporting process, not in place in other states and territories.

"Every single MRSA that's isolated in this state is notified and we collect at my lab
- we actually get the organism and we test it," she said.

"We're not really sure why they should be so high ... we've got a few studies going
to try and look at reasons for our high rates.

"Our concern is that it is becoming more and more resistant and therefore will be difficult
to treat," Dr Christiansen said.

Symptoms of community-acquired MRSA could be sores that turned into large abscesses
or carbuncles, or wound infections that did not respond to treatment.

A federal department of health spokeswoman said the department had met Dr Christiansen
and there was ongoing discussion with expert committees on the best way to address community-acquired
infections.

AAP jp/jt/sd

KEYWORD: INFECTION DOCTOR (REISSUING)

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.