Infection control strategy by killing drug-resistant bacteria

摘要

Persistent outbreaks of bacterial infections have puzzled the scientific community and have generated significant public interest. For example, if you type 'outbreaks of bacterial infections', in Google UK, more than 8 610 000 hits/websites appear, while pubmed search results in 143 879 articles. Despite the use of resources (human/financial) to eradicate this menace, we are witnessing a worsening trend and the emergence of superbugs is leading us to a pre-antibiotic era. For example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection rates in New South Wales hospitals in early 2000s led to a high-profile 'hand-washing' hygiene campaign that seemed to achieve results. However, the latest hospital infection rates appear higher than they were after the campaign, despite the claims by health officials that the hand-washing targets were met. Recent data shows hospital staff treated 730 cases of MRSA infection in the first four months of 2012, up from 597 in 2011.