Seven of nine confirmed cases of a new and potentially deadly bacteria have emerged in metro Detroit, and experts fear the drug-resistant germ may develop the ability to spread easily.
"Doctors are more than concerned. We are alarmed," said Dr. Marcus Zervos, head of infectious diseases for the Henry Ford Health System. "We don't want this bacteria to become more communicable. We know that would be a nightmare."
The bacteria, which often causes skin boils, is called Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or VRSA.
It's a close cousin of MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. That's the antibiotic-resistant infection that killed a Virginia teenager last spring. The incident prompted scores of schools across the country, including about a half-dozen in the Detroit area, to temporarily close and disinfect.
No one has died of the VRSA bacteria, which so far has infected only people with chronic health problems, such as diabetes or kidney failure. Those diseases affect more than 500,000 Michiganders and often come with open sores or catheter wounds where VRSA can breed.
But doctors say VRSA could lead to death if it infects the blood or vital organs.
Officials say they are concerned because VRSA is resistant to the drug vancomycin, one of a handful of pharmaceuticals used to treat infections resistant to commonly used antibiotics, including penicillin. Vancomycin often is used to treat MRSA.
"We don't want to lose one of our very important guns in terms of fighting infection," said Dr. Eden Wells of the Michigan Department of Community Health.
Spread of the VRSA bacteria potentially could increase medical costs and the risk of death as doctors try several drugs on infected patients before turning to expensive new drugs, Zervos said.
Researchers speculate that each VRSA case developed independently in the infected patients when two other bacteria -- an already vancomycin-resistant enterococcus and Staphylococcus aureus -- came into contact in a wound.
People infected with VRSA have been found in Southfield, Troy and Royal Oak, with the two most recent cases in October and December of last year. One case was found each in New York and Pennsylvania.
Warren podiatrist Dr. Guy Pupp treated the first ever case in 2002, on the foot of then 40-year-old Detroiter Sheryl Carter. Pupp cut away the infected foot tissue.
"I'm blessed. I know I'm lucky," Carter, then a telephone operator, said in 2002. She died about a year ago of complications from diabetes and kidney problems, Pupp said.
Officials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have joined with state health workers to investigate the string of VRSA cases in metro Detroit, a process that could take more than a year. Already, hundreds of metro Detroiters who came in contact with those who had the bacteria have been tested for signs of VRSA.
"There's an aggressive response to make sure that there's proper containment" of VRSA, said Jeff Hageman, a CDC epidemiologist.
Metro Detroit has a history of antibiotic resistance. Illegal drug users 20 to 30 years ago injected antibiotics with heroin in a misguided effort to avoid getting contaminated by dirty needles.
As a result, many local bacteria developed resistance to penicillin and its relatives, such as methicillin.
The Detroit-area cases of VRSA have been discovered in nursing homes, wound clinics, outpatient kidney dialysis centers and hospitals.
In addition to Carter, metro Detroiters who have had VRSA include three men and three women whose identities have been kept secret by medical officials.
Medical experts are attempting to stop VRSA from spreading by encouraging doctors and patients to use fewer antibiotics, especially vancomycin.
"Every time you take an antibiotic, you teach that bug something new," said Mary Eley, executive director of a nonprofit called the Michigan Antibiotics Resistance Reduction Coalition. Her organization is one of several, including Wayne State University's pharmacy school, that offers free training programs for school groups and others about antibiotic resistance and how to fight it.
"The less we use them, the longer it's going to take for this naturally occurring evolutionary process of developing resistance to take place," she said.
"It's like we're in a game with the bacteria, and we need to hide our cards."Detroit Free Press
