Bochum.
The Ukraine war exacerbated the problem with multi-resistant germs in German clinics. It is about a specific bacterium.
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, German hospitals certain pathogens that are resistant to many antibiotics are more frequently detected. This connection can be clearly proven and is also reflected in the number of reports from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), according to the National Reference Center for Gram-Negative Hospital Pathogens (NRZ) based at the Ruhr University in Bochum.
Specifically, it is the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, which, according to the information, has been increasingly detected in samples from German clinics since spring 2022. Two strains of the bacterium are also resistant to reserve antibiotics.
Hospital germ: Healthy people do not notice colonization
“Our analyzes have shown that as a result of the hospitalization of Ukrainian patients, it is very likely that outbreak events came to Germany with these strains of bacteria,” says Niels Pfennigwerth from the NRZ loudly Message. The patients were refugees or war wounded.
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Otherwise healthy people notice of the colonization often nothing with these germs. In hospitals, however, the pathogens can be transmitted to people who are severely damaged due to illnesses or injuries, primarily via the hands of the staff. Also read:Viruses versus bacteria: phage therapy for patients
In the worst case, treatment is no longer possible
In this case, Klebsiella pneumoniae can cause pneumonia or wound infections, among other things. Because of its resistance to reserve antibiotics, which are reserved exclusively for severe cases, in the worst case no treatment at all would be possible, according to Pfennigwerth. The NRZ and RKI therefore recommend precautionary screening of people with a connection to Ukraine when admitted to German hospitals.
Antibiotic resistance is part of the evolution, a natural development. It means that bacteria develop defense strategies against active substances or mechanisms. Resistance occurs wherever antibiotics are used.
The occurrence varies from country to country. Eastern Europe According to the RKI, it is one of the areas with a particularly strong spread. According to the RKI, there are around 50,000 diseases with multi-resistant germs in Germany every year. Two-thirds of these are acquired in hospital, and around 2,500 men and women would die from it. Also read: Global alliance against germs
Multi-resistant germs: study speaks of 35,000 deaths in Europe
One published in early 2022 in the journal The Lancet study from the USA shows the full extent of the problem: According to this, more than 1.2 million people worldwide died directly from an infection with an antibiotic-resistant pathogen in 2019, in Europe the figure was around 35,000, and the trend is rising. In almost five million deaths, such an infection was partly responsible for the death, write the researchers from the University of Washington. (kai)
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