FOUR cases of a potentially deadly germ have been discovered in East Yorkshire.
Doctors have identified multi drug resistant gram-negative (MDRGN) bugs in four patients transferred to East Yorkshire from hospitals overseas and from other parts of England.
Now, every patient transferred from foreign hospitals and major cities in England is being isolated to prevent an outbreak at Hull Royal Infirmary (HRI) and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.
A team of specialists is screening patients for signs of potentially deadly infections caused by the bugs, which cannot be treated by antibiotics, to ensure they are safe to be admitted onto wards at the hospitals.
Dr Peter Moss, infectious diseases consultant at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, is appealing to people to stop asking GPs for antibiotics to treat minor complaints such as viral infections to give medics a chance of fighting the superbugs.
He said: "So far, by a combination of diligence and a bit of good luck, we have kept patients isolated to prevent it spreading. But it is out there and you can't put the genie back in the bottle."
One of the four patients tested positive for an infection caused by MDRGN bacteria after contracting it at an intensive care unit in India before being transferred to HRI. Despite multiple attempts to control the infection, his condition deteriorated and he returned to India to be close to his family.It is not known if the man survived.
In the other cases, the patients were discovered to be carriers of the germ. One had suffered a serious head injury on holiday and had contracted the bug while he was being treated in a foreign intensive care unit.
While the patients have not gone on to develop infections, they will be listed as carriers of MDRGN bacteria for the rest of their lives to flag them up to medics in case of future hospital admission to protect other patients.
Although only a few patients are transferred to Hull and Cottingham from other hospitals at home and abroad each year, strict controls such as isolation and screening will stop any infection from MDRGN germs taking hold and spreading throughout our hospitals.
First emerging in India, infections caused by MDRGN bacteria spread first to Europe and then to the UK through increased foreign travel and health tourism, where people travel abroad to have cheaper elective procedures such as cosmetic surgery.
Infection outbreaks have already been recorded in London and in hospitals in the north of England. No patients have contracted MDRGN infections at either Hull Royal or Castle Hill, it has only been found in patients who have spent time in other hospitals.
However, doctors fear the problem will escalate unless the prescribing of antibiotics is controlled.
Dr Moss, also deputy chief medical officer at the trust, said: "There has been a lot of anxiety in the past about MRSA and Clostridium Difficile and while I would be reluctant to say we have got on top of those, we are certainly on the way to managing them.
"The really big concern is multi-drug-resistant gram negative bacteria.
"If you get a bloodstream infection with normal E.coli, assuming you are otherwise healthy and get the right antibiotics, you have a 95 per cent-plus chance of making a full recovery.
"However, a similar infection with multi-drug resistant gram bacteria, the death rate is about 50 per cent. That takes us back to where we were before antibiotics and that's a real worry."
He said over-prescribing of antibiotics, the use of antibiotics in intensive animal farming for the food industry and the lack of new antibiotics being developed by the pharmaceutical industry were allowing superbugs to take hold.
The UK's chief medical officer Professor Sally Davies has called on MPs to add antibiotic resistance to the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies, which monitors the UK's vulnerability to terrorist attacks, because of the growing threat.
She described the new MDRGN bugs as "a ticking time bomb".
Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics GRAM-NEGATIVE bacteria often live naturally in the gut but a small number can become resistant to antibiotics, which means traditional forms of treatment are not effective in treating infections caused by the germs.Multi-drug-resistant gram-negative bacteria is an umbrella term used to cover a range of bacteria including forms of E.coli and Klebsiella.
The bacteria can be spread from person to person or by indirect contact through objects and can cause urine infections, blood poisoning or pneumonia.
Most people who carry the bacteria can fight it off on their own. However, hospital patients are at more risk because their defences are already weakened by illness, surgery, medication and the use of invasive treatments including catheters and drips.
Hospital patients identified with infections are treated in isolation by nursing staff and medics wearing gloves and plastic aprons to prevent the spread to other patients.
