Session also outlines agents to address bacterial resistance to different pathogens
MONDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- The Brazilian epidemic clonal complex of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), associated with increased drug resistance, significant mortality, and risk for invasive disease, has been identified in the United States, according to data presented during a session focusing on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, held from Oct. 21 to 24 in Vancouver, Canada.
Investigators presented data on infections in the Midwestern United States associated with the ST239 MRSA strain. Among MRSA isolates collected between January 2007 and January 2010, the researchers found that 6.6 percent were identified as ST239 from 71 patients. The mortality rate among cases was 23 percent. While the investigators found that the MRSA isolates were susceptible to vancomycin and linezolid, significant resistance occurred with clindamycin (100 percent), tetracycline (92 percent), trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (75 percent), moxifloxacin (88 percent), and gentamicin (94 percent).
In another study, Courtney A. Gidengil, M.D., of the RAND Corporation in Boston, and colleagues evaluated the benefits associated with specific MRSA prevention strategies among patients admitted to intensive care units. The investigators found that a universal contact precautions plus universal decolonization strategy prevented the highest number of cases of MRSA colonization and infection. Other studies presented during the session showed that drugs such as fusidic-acid and JNJ-Q2 may provide alternative options to address bacterial infections when currently-available antibiotics fail to be effective.
"Fusidic-acid demonstrated potent activity against this current collection of Staphylococcus aureus from U.S.A. hospitals. Fusidic-acid activity was comparable to tigecycline, [both of] which were at least two-fold more active than other agents with similar clinical indications," write the authors of one study.
A researcher in one of the latter studies is employed by Furiex.
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