Killer bug could be heading Singapore’s way

[Watchman]

Killer bug could be heading Singapore’s way
December 3rd, 2010 | Author: Editorial

Singapore is preparing for a killer bug that could head this way,
as hospitals step up checks on the more susceptible patients
especially those on antibiotics and the elderly.
The Strait Times reported that the immediate symptom
is diarrhoea. All patients suffering from diarrhoea and
who are on antibiotics are undergoing checks.
Doctors in public hospitals also want to be certain
that such patients are not infected with the killer strain
of the Clostridium difficile bacterium called the ribotype 027.
The strain wreaked havoc in about 30 hospitals in
Quebec province in Canada in 2003 and 2004, infecting
more than 1,400 patients. Many needed urgent surgery
and about 14 percent died within one month of diagnosis.
Several hospitals in the United States were also affected.
The bug has since crossed the Atlantic and has emerged
in hospitals in Britain, Ireland and Denmark over the past two years.
Doctors fear that it is only a matter of time before it finds its way to Asia.
The bacterium, commonly known as C. difficile, has been
around for a long time, and is a common hospital-acquired bug.
It is only the ribotype 027 that has proven deadly, though
the normal version can also be fatal sometimes.
People on antibiotics can get the bug because such
medication disrupts the good bacteria in their bodies,
which would normally keep the dormant Clostridium
difficile spores from turning infectious.

.

Pamela

 

[singveld]

since singapore is addicted to foreign workers, it will deserve the worse bugs.

 

[johnny333]

It's probably here already but you won't read about it because the local media will not want to cause panic. Just imagine scarring away all those medical tourists