Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 5 april 2018
CDC: Drug-resistant 'nightmare bacteria' pose growing threat

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE for Disease Control and and easy to share their re-
AP Chief Medical Writer Prevention. sistance tricks with other
"Nightmare bacteria" with "These verge on untreat- types of bacteria. Of these,
unusual resistance to an- able infections" where the 221 had unusual genes
tibiotics of last resort were only option may be sup- that conferred resistance.
found more than 200 portive care — fluids and The cases were scattered
times in the United States sometimes machines to throughout 27 states.
last year in a first-of-a-kind maintain life to give the pa- "Even in remote areas" this
hunt to see how much of a tient a chance to recover, threat is real, because pa-
threat these rare cases are Schuchat said. tients often transfer to and
becoming, health officials The situation was described from other places for care,
said Tuesday. in a CDC report. said Dr. Jay Butler, chief
That's more than they had Bugs and drugs are in a medical officer for the
expected to find, and the constant battle, as germs state of Alaska and past
true number is probably evolve to resist new and old president of the Associa-
higher because the effort antibiotics. About 2 million tion of State and Territorial
involved only certain labs Americans get infections Health Officials.
in each state, officials say. from antibiotic-resistant Others in close contact
The problem mostly strikes bacteria each year and with the infected patient
people in hospitals and 23,000 die, Schuchat said. then were tested, and 11
nursing homes who need Concern has been growing percent were found to be
IVs and other tubes that about a rise in bacteria re- carrying the same super-
can get infected. In many sistant to all or most antibiot- bugs even though they
cases, others in close con- ics. Last year, public health were not sick. This gives the
tact with these patients labs around the country bugs more of a chance to
also harbored the super- were asked to watch for spread.
bugs even though they and quickly respond to What to do? CDC suggests:
weren't sick — a risk for fur- cases of advanced antibi- —Tell your doctors if you re-
ther spread. otic resistance, especially cently had health care in
Some of the sick patients to some last-resort antibiot- another country.
had traveled for surgery or ics called carbapenems. —Talk with them about pre-
other health care to an- In the first nine months of venting infections, taking
other country where drug- This undated file illustration made available by the Centers for the year, more than 5,770 care of chronic conditions
resistant germs are more Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta depicts Pseudomo- samples were tested for to help avoid them, and
nas aeruginosa bacteria, one of the germs that can evolve to
common, and the super- resist antibiotics. these "nightmare bacte- getting vaccines to pre-
bug infections were discov- Associated Press ria," as CDC calls them, vent them.
ered after they returned to and one quarter were —Wash your hands regular-
the U.S. mare bacteria in your Schuchat, principal deputy found to have genes that ly and keep cuts clean until
"Essentially, we found night- backyard," said Dr. Anne director of the U.S. Centers make them hard to treat healed.q

Late-winter storms slow California's dive back into drought

By RICH PEDRONCELLI and Runoff from snow historical- Gehrke measured 32.1
ELLEN KNICKMEYER ly supplies a third of Califor- inches (812 millimeters) of
PHILLIPS STATION, Calif. (AP) nia's water, and the April snow with a metal rod, one
— A stormy close to Cali- snow survey done Monday of hundreds of manual and
fornia's rainy season has typically is the most impor- electronic readings the
slowed the state's plunge tant for gauging how much state uses to gauge Sierra
back into drought, bring- — or how little — water Cal- snowpack.
ing the vital Sierra Nevada ifornia's cities, farms and Californians may have
snowpack to just over half wildlife can expect after caught a break thanks to
of average, water officials the winter. the late-season storms, but
said Monday. "A good March, but cer- "it's not nearly where we
The welcome run of rain- tainly not a great March," would like to be," Gehrke
and snowstorms last month state snow-survey chief said. California had only
more than doubled the Frank Gehrke told news about a quarter of its nor-
In this March 5, 2018 file photo, snow covers the mountain tops state's snow totals for the crews who followed him to mal snowpack going into
over looking Lake Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
Associated Press year, hiking it to 52 percent the snow-covered Phillips March, typically the last
of normal. Station for the survey. month of the rainy season.
The dry winter sent most of
arid Southern California slid-
ing back into drought, less
than a year after Gov. Jer-
ry Brown ended the state's
drought emergency.
"Potentially, we're living off
our savings from last year
so we have to be very
prudent in our water use,"
Gehrke said.q