May be of interest.
infobeat.com
04:17 PM ET 09/23/98
Deadly meningitis bacteria resistant to drug
Release at 5 p.m. EDT
BOSTON (Reuters) - Bacterial meningitis -- the often fatal infection that usually attacks infants -- is growing more resistant to drugs, researchers reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Doctors in Paris said the germ responsible for the disease that inflames the membranes around the brain and spinal cord has learned how to shake off the effects of the antibiotic chloramphenicol.
The resistant bacterial strain was isolated in 11 patients in Vietnam and one in France, said the researchers, led by Marc Galimand of the National Reference Center for Antibiotics.
The problem is expected to have its greatest impact in developing countries where chloramphenicol is frequently used to treat it because the drug is cheap and requires only a single injection, the researchers said.
''The emergence of high-level chloramphenicol resistance is of great concern,'' the Galimand group said.
In developed countries, chloramphenicol, sold under the brand name Chloromycetin by Parke-Davis, is far less popular than other medicines because it can cause blood problems, including, in rare instances, a fatal form of anemia.
Symptoms of meningitis include headache, stiff neck, fever, nausea, vomiting and irritability, often leading to stupor and coma. The disease progresses rapidly and if untreated may lead to death in 24 to 72 hours.
In a given year 4.5 children per 100,000 population between the ages of one month and 23 months will contract meningitis. Resistance to the disease grows as a person ages.
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