Latest news with #superbug
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists Sound Alarm Over Plastic-Eating Bacteria in Hospitals
A powerful bacterial superbug is making headlines for its unique and alarming ability to feed on plastic found in medical devices. Researchers at Brunel University of London have discovered that Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a drug-resistant bacterium linked to over 559,000 deaths globally each year, has developed a disturbing survival mechanism. The bug not only resists treatment but can also 'digest' polycaprolactone, a type of plastic used in common medical tools like sutures, catheters, implants, and wound dressings. According to a groundbreaking study published in Cell, this adaptation helps the bacterium cling to hospital environments, creating tougher biofilms that resist antibiotics and standard cleaning protocols. 'Plastics, including plastic surfaces, could potentially be food for these bacteria,' said study leader Ronan McCarthy. 'Pathogens with this ability could survive for longer in the hospital environment.' The discovery is a chilling reminder that pathogens are constantly evolving to thrive in unexpected ways. In this case, Pseudomonas aeruginosa isn't just surviving—it's actively undermining medical devices designed to save lives. The plastic-eating enzyme it produces could weaken critical tools like ventilators, drug-delivery patches, and surgical meshes, making them less effective and harder to sterilize. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) already lists P. aeruginosa as a major contributor to infections such as pneumonia and urinary tract infections, particularly among patients with compromised immune systems or those recovering from more research is needed to determine the full extent of this superbug's capabilities, SciTech Daily reported that McCarthy emphasized the urgency: 'Plastic is everywhere in modern medicine, and it turns out some pathogens have adapted to degrade it. We need to understand the impact this has on patient safety.' With its ability to withstand antibiotics and thrive on plastics in hospitals, Pseudomonas aeruginosa poses a dual threat. One that could reshape infection control strategies and force a rethink of how medical tools are designed and Sound Alarm Over Plastic-Eating Bacteria in Hospitals first appeared on Men's Journal on May 26, 2025
Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
First new antibiotic in 50 years to tackle superbug
The first new antibiotic in 50 years to tackle a common superbug will be tested on patients. The drug, which targets one of the bacteria considered to pose the biggest threat to human health, has been hailed as an 'exciting' development in the fight against antibiotic resistance. On Monday, Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, announced that it will take zosurabalpin into the third and last phase of testing on humans. It is the first drug in five decades to show promise of tackling Acinetobacter baumannii, a pathogen which is described as a 'priority' by the World Health Organisation and an 'urgent threat' by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US national public health agency. The drug-resistant bacteria disproportionately impact patients who are in the hospital, causing infections such as pneumonia and sepsis. It is estimated that between 40 and 60 per cent of infected patients, many of whom are immunocompromised because of conditions such as cancer, die as a result of the bug. One of the reasons it is so difficult to treat is that it has a double-walled 'membrane' protecting it from attack, so it is difficult to get drugs into it and to keep them in, experts say. Zosurabalpin, which has been developed alongside researchers at Harvard University, targets the 'machine' which stops the outer membrane from forming properly. It works differently to all existing antibiotics and it is hoped that it could lay the foundations for future drugs. Drug-resistant bacteria Michael Lobritz, global head infectious diseases at Roche, said: 'Our goal is to contribute new innovations to overcome antimicrobial resistance, one of the biggest infectious disease challenges to public health.' The phase-three trial, which it is hoped will start later this year or in early 2026, will look at around 400 patients with a carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii (CRAB) infection who will either receive zosuarbalpin or the current standard of care. It is hoped that the drug will be approved by the end of the decade. Larry Tsai, senior vice president and global head of immunology and product development at Genentech, a unit of Roche, said that the drug-resistant bacteria 'are present in every country of the world' . He said that 'the innovative biology involved in this research could potentially reveal new insights into the structure of bacterial membranes, possibly leading to the discovery of new antibiotics in the future'. Pharmaceutical companies, including Roche, have in the past been unwilling to pursue new antibiotics because of a difficult market in which the drugs are used sparingly to try and avoid resistance. However, the UN has warned that if nothing is done to address the issue, drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and cause a worldwide financial crash. 'Exciting development' Dr Alistair Farley, scientific lead at the Ineos Oxford Institute, has welcomed zosurabalpin as an 'exciting development' for the field. 'There is an urgent unmet clinical need to develop new antibiotics against priority pathogens such as CRAB where antimicrobial resistance is a major concern,' he said. Dr Farley added that it 'may provide a route to the development of new drugs'. Studies showing that it worked 'extremely well' in test-tubes and mice were published in the journal Nature earlier this year. Prof Laura Piddock, scientific director of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, said at the time that it provided 'definite hope' for other hard-to-treat infections. 'What is exciting about this discovery is that one of the building blocks that are part of the outer part of this bacterial cell is disrupted by this new drug,' Prof Piddock said. Antimicrobial resistance was declared by world leaders to be 'one of the most urgent global health threats' at the UN General Assembly earlier this year. The declaration committed members to establish independent panels on antimicrobial resistance, as many have done for climate change, and to reduce deaths linked to resistance by 10 per cent by 2030.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Hospital superbug can feed on medical plastic, first-of-its-kind study reveals
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A superbug that commonly causes infections in hospitals can feed on plastic used for medical interventions, potentially making it even more dangerous, a world-first study has found. The bug is a bacteria species called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is commonly found in hospital environments and can cause potentially deadly infections in the lungs, urinary tract and blood. Now, scientists have analyzed a strain of this bacteria from a hospital patient's wound, which revealed a surprising trick that could enable it to persist on surfaces and in patients for longer — its ability to break down the biodegradable plastics used in stints, sutures and implants. The researchers published their findings May 7 in the journal Cell Reports. "It means we need to reconsider how pathogens exist in the hospital environment," study lead author Ronan McCarthy, a professor in biomedical sciences at Brunel University of London, said in a statement. "Plastics, including plastic surfaces, could potentially be food for these bacteria. Pathogens with this ability could survive for longer in the hospital environment. It also means that any medical device or treatment that contains plastic could be susceptible to degradation by bacteria." The team's laboratory study raises the need for further research to better understand how this plastic-eating ability affects the bug in realistic hospital environments, in which specific cleaning protocols are in place to help prevent exposing patients and medical instruments to bacteria. P. aeruginosa is thought to have rapidly evolved over the last 200 years to infect humans as they began living in densely populated areas, especially among those with weakened lungs due to air pollution. Related: Dangerous 'superbugs' are a growing threat, and antibiotics can't stop their rise. What can? Since then, many strains of the bug have acquired resistance to a wide variety of antibiotics. These resistant microbes can contaminate catheters and ventilation devices, making P. aeruginosa a common cause of hospital-acquired infections, especially among vulnerable patients. P. aeruginosa is tied to roughly 559,000 deaths per year globally, the majority of which are associated with antimicrobial resistance. Yet how the bacteria can thrive in ostensibly sterile hospital environments has remained unclear. To investigate, the researchers took a swab from a patient's wound in a British hospital and analyzed it, which revealed the bug can make an enzyme named Pap1. This enzyme is able to break down the plastic polycaprolactone (PCL) — commonly used in sutures, wound dressings, surgical meshes and other medical equipment — and release the plastic's carbon, which P. aeruginosa can then feed on. To test whether this enzyme is really responsible for breaking down plastic, the scientists inserted the gene that codes for Pap1 into Escherichia coli bacteria, and found that when that bacteria expressed the enzyme, it too was able to break down PCL. The team further confirmed the enzyme's plastic-eating role when they deleted the gene that codes for it in a P. aeruginosa variant, finding that the microbe was no longer able to dissolve the plastic. RELATED STORIES —How fast can antibiotic resistance evolve? —AI could identify the next superbug-fighting drug —Scientists have found a secret 'switch' that lets bacteria resist antibiotics — and it's been evading lab tests for decades The bug's plastic-chewing power doesn't just seem to be granting it a food source: It is also making it more dangerously resistant to treatment. This is because the bacteria uses plastic fragments to form hardier biofilms — structures with protective coatings that shield superbugs from antibiotics — the researchers found. The scientists also identified similar enzymes in other bacteria, meaning that other widely used medical plastics could be providing sustenance and improved resilience to additional superbugs, possibly contributing to hospital-acquired infections. To follow up on this, the researchers have called for urgent research on the prevalence of the plastic-eating enzymes among other pathogens, and for experts to reconsider the plastics they use in medical settings, and the ways that they monitor hospital environments. "Plastic is everywhere in modern medicine, and it turns out some pathogens have adapted to degrade it," McCarthy said. "We need to understand the impact this has on patient safety." This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.
Daily Mail
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Leslie Ash, 65, makes a rare public appearance using a pink walking stick as she leaves The Vanessa Feltz Show after issuing new health update
Leslie Ash made a rare public appearance as she stepped out in London following her appearance on The Vanessa Feltz Show on Friday. The actress, 65, recently shared a new health update, two decades after contracting an MSSA superbug that nearly left her unable to walk. She was awarded a record £5 million in compensation in 2008 after acquiring the infection in hospital. For her latest outing, Leslie looked radiant in a pink maxi dress with red detailing as she left the studio. She used a pink walking stick for support and paired her look with white trainers and a black handbag. Accessorising with layered jewellery, Leslie appeared in good spirits as she made her way to a waiting car. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Last month, Leslie reflected on the incident that changed her life. She was admitted to hospital in April 2004 after cracking two ribs during a fall from bed amid an intimate moment with her husband, former footballer Lee Chapman. But it was while she was in hospital for this injury that she contracted a 'deadly strain' of the MRSA superbug because of an abscess that had developed in her spinal column - which could have left her permanently unable to walk. Leslie revealed she was only given a 'slight hope of recovery' by doctors, who thought she'd be wheelchair-bound by the time she was 60 due to a life-changing spine condition. Against all odds, the Quadrophenia star has bounced back and rarely relies on a trusty walking stick, let alone a wheelchair. Now 20-years later, Leslie spoke to Charlotte Hawkins and Richard Madeley on Good Morning Britain about her current health state. She said: 'I will never be the same as I was, obviously. But yeah, It is 20 years exactly and It's fine. 'I love working still, I can still do bits. Nowhere near what it was before but I'm feeling really really really good. I'm very healthy.' She added: 'They said I'd be in a wheelchair by the time I was 60 but I think, I'm ver lucky. You know, my husbands helped me with my rehab and getting me into the gym. 'And really making sure that I stay fit. You've got to keep your core strong. There are so many things you have to do, mentally as well.' The Men Behaving Badly star previously admitted she needed 'mental strength' to keep fighting her condition, but has defied doctors expectations. Leslie, who was given a bleak prognosis following the string of unfortunate events, told The Sun: 'They said I'd be in a wheelchair by 60 because of my terrible hips and knees. I was only given a slight hope of recovery but because I wanted it enough I was able to achieve what I have today.' Back in 2008, Leslie successfully sued the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and won an astonishing £5million in compensation, as she had contracted the antibiotic-resistant MSSA form of the infection after an epidural needle came loose. The payout was so hefty because there was a belief she would not return to ongoing TV roles - and the compensation reflected the future loss of earnings. Of the importance of staying optimistic, the Oxfordshire-born star said: 'If I sat down and did nothing I'd be in a wheelchair now, without a doubt. You need a lot of mental strength to keep fighting.'
CNN
06-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Deadly fungi are fueling the next superbug crisis. Experts say it will be even harder to beat
CNN — A new superbug threat is spreading around the world. The culprit: microscopic fungal spores that live in and on human bodies and in the dirt and air. Torrence Irvin believes the life-threatening fungi called Coccidioides entered his lungs in June 2018 while he was relaxing in his backyard in Patterson, California. 'I was sitting in my lounger enjoying a nice summer day, playing games on my phone and having a cocktail,' said Irvin, who came close to death before a specialist correctly diagnosed his infection nearly a year later. 'I went from a 290-pound man to 150-pound skeleton,' he said. 'It came to the point where my first doctors just tossed up their hands and told my wife there's nothing we can do. I still remember how my wife sobbed when they told her that.' Like Irvin, Rob Purdie thinks he was outside his Bakersfield, California home, working in his garden, when he inhaled Coccidioides spores in 2012. The infection soon spread to his brain, causing fungal meningitis. The condition is marked by potentially deadly inflammation of the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. 'In about 3% of people that are infected, the fungus goes somewhere else in the body, beyond the lungs to your skin, bone and joints, and other organs, or weird places like your eyeball, tooth and pinkie finger,' said Purdie, a founding member of the nonprofit MYCare, or MYcology Advocacy, Research & Education, which educates and promotes research in the field of fungal diseases. 'Half the time it goes to the brain, like mine,' Purdie said. 'To control my disease for the rest of my life, I have to take intracranial injections with a toxic 80-year-old drug that is slowly poisoning me.' In the HBO series 'The Last of Us,' a fictional, mutant Cordyceps fungus spreads through bites from infected human hosts. (HBO and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.) In the show, the parasite quickly invades a victims' brain, turning them into a violent, scale-covered predator with tentacles sprouting from the mouth. The real-life Cordyceps, however, only infects insects such as ants, beetles, butterflies, moths and spiders — the rest of the plot is science fiction. Reality, however, doesn't require sci-fi zombies — fungi that maim and kill people are quickly spreading in the world today. Recent global estimates indicate there are 6.5 million invasive fungal infections and some 3.8 million deaths annually — and some of those infections are becoming more difficult to treat. Due to the emerging microbial resistance to all existing fungicidal drugs, in April the World Health Organization listed 19 fungal species as critical, high or medium priority for new drug development. Fungi in the genus Coccidioides, which infected Irvin and Purdie, are on WHO's priority list. While deaths associated with bacterial superbugs are higher than those linked with fungi, (4.7 million vs. 3.8 million), there are hundreds of antibiotics available to treat bacteria. In contrast, only about 17 antifungal drugs are in use, according to the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. One reason why is the difficulty of making drugs that kill the fungus without hurting humans. 'Genetically, fungi are more closely related to humans than they are to bacteria,' said infectious disease specialist Dr. Neil Clancy, an associate professor of medicine and director of the mycology program at the University of Pittsburgh. 'If you're trying to make an antifungal drug, you've got to come up with targets that won't harm genes and proteins humans have,' Clancy said. 'Right now, the drug we use that kills fungus best cross-reacts with human kidney cells, so you can end up with kidney failure.' Other antifungals can cause impotence, pancreatitis, liver damage and severe allergic reactions. Fungal infections in otherwise healthy people are typically resolved with current antifungal treatment, especially when caught early, specialists say. Those most vulnerable to invasive fungal infections are people with weakened immune systems, perhaps due to chemotherapy, dialysis, HIV/AIDS, immunosuppressant medications, and organ or stem cell transplants, according to the CDC. Yet neither Irvin or Purdie were immunocompromised when they contracted coccidioidomycosis, or cocci, the disease caused by the fungi they inhaled. Because researchers first identified cocci in California's San Joaquin Valley, it's also known as valley fever. 'Some of these patients, despite not being immunosuppressed, just don't fight off the infection well,' said fungi researcher Dr. George Thompson, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine. 'If we could figure out what's different about their immune system, perhaps we can augment it to help them counter the fungus,' said Thompson, the specialist who diagnosed Irvin with valley fever. Cryptococcus neoformans, which causes a potentially deadly form of meningitis, topped WHO's list of the four fungal parasites that are most critical priority for research and new drug development. The death rate from an infection with C. neoformans is extremely high, up to 61%, especially in patients with HIV infections. Aspergillus fumigatus, a mold that damages the lungs and can spread to other parts of the body, was second on the list. 'Aspergillus is everywhere — your soil, in the leaves you rake, in the mulch you put down,' Thompson said. 'It's really hard to avoid and has a very high associated mortality rate —about 40% in some people — so that's an infection for which we desperately need new drugs.' Candida auris is third on the critical list and unique in several ways. First, the microbe was already resistant to all four classes of fungicidal treatments when it first appeared in the United States in 2013. 'Candida auris arrived with antifungal resistance baked in,' said Pitt's Clancy. 'It doesn't require the emergence of new mutations in order to develop antifungal resistance.' Also known as C. auris, the yeast is unusual because it's 'sticky,' adhering to both plastic and skin in ways that other Candida species don't, said fungal researcher Dr. Jatin Vyas, a professor of medicine at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. This fungal tenaciousness makes C. auris extremely difficult to decontaminate when found in busy hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis clinics. 'A patient can be colonized with C. auris, then a health care worker or someone who's caring for them touches them and gets the organism,' Vyas said. 'The caregivers can then be colonized and pass it from patient to patient.' In 2016, there were 51 clinical cases of C. auris in four states, according to the CDC. By 2023 — only seven years later — 4,514 clinical cases had been identified in 36 states. Clinical cases of the multidrug-resistant yeast rose by 95% year-over-year in 2021 alone. Candida albicans, a cousin of C. auris, is a common yeast that lives in small amounts on the skin and in the mouth, throat, intestines and vagina. C. albicans is fourth on the list of WHO's critical priority pathogens. As part of a healthy microbiome, C. albicans lives peacefully in the body and may even play a role in boosting immunity. When that balance is disrupted by antibiotics or an immunosuppressant, however, it can cause troubling yeast infections or lead to antimicrobial-resistant invasive candidiasis. 'Candida infections can end up in the bloodstream, and when they do, the mortality rates in the literature range anywhere from 40% to 60%, even with prompt diagnosis and treatment,' Vyas said. Torrence Irvin began having trouble breathing in June 2018. He thought it was a cold, so he didn't go to the doctor. The symptoms persisted, and that August, the vomiting began. 'I was vomiting everything that I took in, whether it was water or solids,' Irvin said. 'My wife ordered vomit bags and I would have to have one with me, no matter where I went, no matter what I was doing. I began to get weaker. I began to lose weight.' His wife of 22 years, Rhonda Smith-Irvin, was shocked at how quickly her husband deteriorated. 'One time we went to the hospital twice in two days and between those days, he lost 31 pounds — I couldn't believe it,' she said. 'We were in the hospital for Thanksgiving, and he was still throwing up every day, all day.' Days in the hospital turned into weeks. With a primary diagnosis of pneumonia, Irvin said doctors couldn't understand why he wasn't responding to antibiotics. Being diabetic hindered his recovery. His fevers were dangerously high and hard to treat, his wife said, even with ice packed around his entire body. 'He didn't even know he was having the fevers, so I started sleeping in the hospital bed with him to alert the nurses,' she said. 'They told me those high fevers alone could kill him.' As his health continued to fail, Irvin said, he was put on a ventilator — 'I got to the point where I was only breathing on 20% of my lungs' — and remembers needing three blood transfusions. 'It was scary for us because he was so sick, so sick,' said his mother, Brenda Irvin. 'He kept saying, 'Am I going to die?' 'No, you're not going to die,' I would tell him, 'God is going to heal you,'' she said. 'You know, I couldn't let him go there because of my faith.' For decades, cocci was primarily diagnosed in farmers and other outdoor workers in the arid desert and valley regions of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas — places where Coccidioides microbes thrive. Today, however, cases of cocci are found in more than 20 states and have reached as far east as Pennsylvania and Maryland, according to CDC data. 'The most common thought is that you only get it if you work outdoors in a dusty area. I had an indoor job. I did retirement planning,' Purdie said. Torrence Irvin also worked indoors — as a department store manager. The climate crisis, increasing wildfires and dust storms may be fueling the spread, according to research. Models of the projected spread of cocci predict a 50% rise in cases by 2100. 'It can happen to anyone. Wrong place, wrong time, and they just happen to breathe in spores carried by the wind,' UC Davis' Thompson said. 'In Central California, people get this infection just driving down Interstate 5.' By the time Irvin discovered Thompson's Sacramento clinic in March 2019, he needed a walker to travel short distances. Thompson soon put Irvin on the experimental drug olorofim as part of a phase II clinical trial to test its impact on Coccidioides. The drug is also being tested to treat Aspergillus fumigatus, the mold on WHO's critical list. 'I'd never heard of valley fever,' Irvin said. 'But Dr. Thompson said we're at the point where we'd exhausted any other option we had, so my wife and I were willing to try this.' According to Thompson, if Irvin had not had the resources to find a specialist and change his treatment, 'he probably would have died from his infection.' 'I worry even more for our patients with less resources who may have a really bad outcome or die because they aren't seen by physicians who work with cocci and have access to cutting-edge treatments,' Thompson said. 'We need more physicians to manage these patients, and we need to invest in the development of new drugs.' Olorofim is a daily oral medication, which means Irvin didn't undergo invasive intravenous infusions other drugs may require during his more than three years of treatment, Thompson said. 'Torrence had no side effects at all, but a few others in the trial experienced liver toxicity,' Thompson said. 'But that generally could be managed by stopping the drug, restarting at a lower dose and then increasing it over time.' Today, Irvin is now off olorofim, and repeat tests show no emergence of the disease. That could change, however. 'Dr. Thompson told me I would always have some form of cocci in my body based on the degree to which I had it,' Irvin said. 'Still, I've gone from being on a walker to being on a cane, which was a huge improvement to me. It's been a blessing. 'I'm currently still out of work for the disease, but I'm stronger,' he said. 'I'm back in the gymnasium working out. I've regained a lot of the weight back.' The damage to his lungs, however, was extensive, leaving scar tissue that Irvin says keeps him from fully recovering. 'I do find myself panicking when I do get shortness of breath, wondering whether or not I need to go get looked at,' he said. 'I wish I'd had listened to my body when I first got sick. If I would have responded more quickly to what I was going through, I may have been able to catch this before it went through my lungs.' That's the message Irvin wants to send to the world — especially men like himself who, as he once did, see themselves as invincible. 'We have to push our male ego aside and listen to our bodies because it will tell us when something is wrong,' Irvin said. 'We need to pay attention, take care of ourselves. Health is wealth. It goes a long way.' Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being .
