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Superbug Screening Methods Under Development

Vincent Tam (University of Houston)

Vincent Tam (University of Houston)

Researchers at University of Houston and St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, also in Houston, are developing better screening methods to detect a potentially lethal, drug-resistant superbug found in that region. The team’s findings on the discovery of the multi-drug resistant bacterium appeared earlier this year in the journal Diagnostic Microbiology & Infectious Disease (paid subscription required).

Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, called CRKP for short, were found in three patients at St. Luke’s in 2010. While CRKP had been found in the northeastern part of the U.S. and in California, few reports of this particular superbug have emerged in most of the country. The researchers believe these are the first confirmed cases in Texas.

Vincent Tam, a professor of clinical sciences at Houston’s College of Pharmacy (pictured right), says the key to treating CRKP infections is to find it quickly, “so you can initiate the appropriate measures that will benefit the patient, prevent it from spreading and discourage the development of resistance.” The results can be serious for patients, particularly those with weakened immune systems. Left untreated, CRKP can cause pneumonia, bloodstream and urinary tract infections, among others.

These bacteria are resistant to the carbapenem class of antibiotics, which are among the antimicrobials of last resort for this type of bacteria. As a result, clinicians managing the infection are left with few options but to employ more toxic drugs that pose an increased risk of damage to the kidneys or other organs.

Better detection methods are needed to supplement most automated systems found in microbiology labs that the researchers say can misclassify certain bacteria as being susceptible to carbapenems, which can lead to inappropriate treatment and unfavorable patient outcomes. More reliable methods are generally only available in research laboratories outside of the clinical setting, such as at the Centers for Disease Control.

Read more: Research Spin Off Company to Tackle Superbug Infections

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