By: Barrie Quappé RN, BSN – Consultant/Director:
Medical Journals have covered this particular challenge but very little is known to the public. In 2008 a group of primarily specialist nurses wrote:
“Acinetobacter baumannii is a troublesome and increasingly problematic healthcare-associated pathogen, especially in critical care. It may be associated with hospital acquired infections with considerable clinical and economic costs. In physiologically compromised patients, morbidity and mortality are common sequelae of hospital acquired infections.” (Montefour, et al, 2008, p.15)
A search to the Centers for Disease Control(‘CDC’) out of Atlanta, Georgia in the USA finds a less dramatic opening description of Acinetobacter:
“General information about Acinetobacter: Acinetobacter [asz−in−ée−toe–back−ter] is a group of bacteria commonly found in soil and water. While there are many types or “species” of Acinetobacter and all can cause human disease, Acinetobacter baumannii [asz−in−ée−toe–back−ter boe-maa-nee-ie] accounts for about 80% of reported infections. Outbreaks of Acinetobacter infections typically occur in intensive care units and healthcare settings housing very ill patients. Acinetobacter infections rarely occur outside of healthcare settings.” (Anon., 2010)
More recently in 2015, the BBC reported on a battle with this particular bug:
“It took the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham 18 months to eradicate a particularly nasty strain of superbug that was infecting patients on some of its wards. Before then the Acinetobacter baumannii bug managed to resist nearly everything staff and cleaners threw at it. Stubborn: Altogether the outbreak lasted 18 months and it was only eradicated after the closure of an operating theatre which had to be decontaminated with hydrogen peroxide. It’s particularly known for the fact it’s so difficult to get rid of. It can live on surfaces like a table or a bed and so it just had this predilection for surviving in a hospital environment where antibiotics are being splashed around. If you give antibiotics, you select for antibiotic resistant organisms, the sensitive ones die off and the ones left standing take over and multiply. The threat posed by antibiotic resistant bacteria like Acinetobacter baumannii is now on Britain’s official National Risk Register. That means they are rated alongside terrorism, civil disorder and cyber-attack as a realistic potential danger we need to prepare for and deal with.” (Anon., 2015)
Note that Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor (HPV) is credited in ridding the Queen Elizabeth hospital of this beast and its methodology and use is very simple. Specially developed equipment can spray the HPV, let the concentrated droplets of Hydrogen Peroxide dwell for a period of time to kill the majority of the drug resistant bugs and then extracts it off by breaking down the vapor into hydrogen and water and vacuuming it back out. In this way the treated room is now safe for the next patient.
Is this technology available in Cayman yet? Not that I have seen and I recall recommending it at least once. We do have outbreaks of multi-drug resistant pathogens here and hand-washing and basic disinfectant techniques have been proven to be ineffective. Data on how many deaths have occurred due to these hospital acquired infections (‘HAIs’) are not readily known to the public and what cost is it to rid a facility of these germs versus allow the germ to recycle and claim other lives? Amazing that the very inexpensive household substance such as Hydrogen Peroxide could potentially be such a live-saver!
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Relevant Links:
- (2010) ‘Acinetobacter in Healthcare Settings’, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Online] Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/acinetobacter.html Accessed:27 March 2016)
- Anonymous (2015) ‘Battling a hospital superbug at Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham’, BBC Radio 4[Online, Available from: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-32612337 (Accessed 27 March 2016)
- Montefour, K., Frieden, J., Hurst, S., Helmich, C., Martin, & Boyle, D. (2008) ‘Acinetobacter baumannii:An Emerging Mulitdrug-Resistant Pathogen in Critical Care’, Critical Care Nurse, 28(1) February, pp.15 – 25.[Online] Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18238934 (Accessed 27 March 2016)