Antibiotic Resistant Staphylococcus Strain Claims Life in Japan
According to the Japanese Times, a 1 year old boy in the Kanto region of Japan died of severe pneumonia last year after being infected with a highly virulent strain of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), medical professionals said Sunday.
This was the first time that a fatal case was confirmed in Japan resulting from infection with community-associated MRSA, whose contagion within a community or a school has been feared, they said.
Community associated MRSA as opposed to the more common hospital associated MRSA has already become a big issue in Europe and the United States but has gained little public attention in Japan.
“We do not have to worry too much about it because a highly virulent strain is rare within community-associated types, but we need to strengthen monitoring activities to prepare for greater infection with the bacteria,” said Tatsuo Yamamoto, a professor of bacteriology at Niigata University.
According to Kitasato University Hospital in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, where the boy was treated, he exhibited symptoms such as a fever and coughing and was diagnosed with pneumonia at a different general hospital. He was later admitted to Kitasato University Hospital and received treatment that included antibiotics, but he died about 10 days later. The antibiotics resistant staphylococcus was found in his blood sample.
While the boy had never been hospitalized before, a laboratory test showed that the genetic structure of the bacteria found in his blood matched that of community associated MRSA and that the strain was highly virulent, capable of producing a toxin that kills white blood cells, according to the hospital.
It is not clear how the bacteria got into him.
“It is known that MRSA has a community associated type, but this is the first time that I have encountered a strain as highly virulent as this,” said Yuki Bando, a lecturer at Kitasato University Hospital’s pediatric department. “The existence of a highly virulent strain has hardly been recognized in the medical field, so I would like to call attention to it.”
MRSA has been commonly known as the major bacteria which infects patients in hospitals around the world, but concerns have been expressed in recent years that infections could also occur outside hospitals.
It is believed that people could be infected with MRSA through skin contact during sports and communal life.
So far, the types of community-associated MRSA found in Japan are known to have caused rashes on the skin, but some cases have been reported in which people suffered seriously due to highly virulent strains of MRSA.
Worldwide, highly virulent strains have caused major infections. A series of fatal causes were reported in France and the United States in the late 1990s, prompting concerns about the spread of community-associated MRSA.
