Cox News Service
7-22-1
Hospitals' hopes that they might be gaining ground on antibiotic-resistant
bacteria have been dashed by a report revealing a new strain of staph germs
are undermining the first new class of antibiotics in 35 years.
Zyvox, designed to be used against hospital-acquired infections
resistant to all other drugs, was approved by the American
Food and Drug Administration little more than a year ago.
The first resistant germs were found in a Boston 85-year-old
kidney dialysis hospital patient in May.
He died a week later from his underlying kidney disease.
"We can't predict whether this is a rare occurrence
or how prevalent it might become, but this is a heads-up
warning that we need to keep an eye on things," said
Mary Jane Ferraro, the director of microbiology at Massachusetts
General Hospital.
The report is being published in the British medical journal
The Lancet.
"It's not good news," said David Bell, the antimicrobial
resistance co-ordinator for the Centres for Disease Control
and Prevention in Atlanta. "It points out that we
really have no way to predict how fast resistance will
develop to a new drug."
Zyvox, which is manufactured by Pharmacia and Upjohn,
is the first of a new class of synthetic drugs called oxazolidinones,
developed to help doctors cope with the alarming increase
of multi-resistant "superbugs" capable of withstanding
treatment by all available antibiotics.
The FDA approved Zyvox in April 2000, for the treatment
of pneumonia and some skin infections. It came amid hopes
that synthetic antibiotics would help stem the tide of
resistant germs, which complicate the treatment of everything
from childhood ear infections to sexually transmitted diseases.
Hospitals have been warned to use Zyvox sparingly and
only when other options have been exhausted. In the past,
overuse and misuse of antibiotics have been major factors
in the rapid emergence of resistance.
Earlier this year, researchers in Chicago reported that
another group of bacteria, enterococci, had also begun
to exhibit resistance to Zyvox. But Mr Bell said the news
of resistance in staph germs, which spread more easily,
is a bigger concern.
"It should serve as another reminder that the answer
to drug resistance is not going to be found in the development
of a superdrug." Since the introduction of penicillin
in the 1940s, infectious bacteria have beaten every new
class of antibiotics.
