The nation’s first cases of super bacterium infection prove again that hospitals have become a major source of transmittable diseases. The cases must put patients, visitors and medical staff on higher alert to prevent any bacteria or viruses from spreading through hospitals. Intensive care units and operating rooms should be subject to tougher anti-infection measures to better protect patients, especially the old and infirm with weak immune systems.
The public has little reason to panic about the super bacterium since there is only a slim chance for healthy people to become infected. This does not mean that health authorities and medical institutions can play down the potential dangers arising from the new bacteria. Rather they should raise their guard against such hard-to-cure infections. Individuals also need to pay more attention to personal hygiene.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, two patients ― a man in his 50s and a woman in her 70s ― were confirmed to have come down with the New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) CRE bacterium in a general hospital in Seoul. It is the first time that the NDM-1 strain has been detected in South Korea. Two other patients in the same hospital are showing symptoms of the bacterium infection. The cases occurred after the country added the NDM-1 to the list of communicable diseases in October.
The super bacterium was first found in India and Pakistan in 2008 and it spread across the globe rapidly. One patient with the NDM-1 died in Belgium. There have been more than 370 infections worldwide. In Japan, another super bacterium ― the multi-resistant acinetobacter baumannii-bacterium (MRAB) ― as reported to have killed over 10 people.
The emergence of such super bacteria is the result of an excess use of antibiotics. Bacteria are parasitic in human bodies. New bacteria come into being with greater resistance to antibiotics. If scientists develop more powerful antibiotics, bacteria tend to become more resistant to the drugs. It seems that humans are locked in a competition with bacteria that could make antibiotics ineffective.
South Korea is infamous for its overuse of antibiotics. The nation has pushed for medical reform to fight drug abuse and misuse by drawing a clear line between the roles of doctors and pharmacists in 2000. However, the nation has made little progress in this effort. The prescription of antibiotics along with other medicines has continued to rise, making people much more vulnerable to super bacteria and other germs. The nation cannot win a war with contagious diseases without curtailing the excessive use of antibiotics.