Oceania > Australia > Australians are increasingly returning from overseas with multi-drug-resistant superbugs

Australia: Australians are increasingly returning from overseas with multi-drug-resistant superbugs

2014/02/03

Australians are increasingly returning from overseas with multi-drug-resistant superbugs, prompting warnings for hospitals to isolate high-risk patients to stop their spread.

Infectious diseases expert Lindsay Grayson said, until recently, superbug infections in Australia were confined to patients with weakened immune systems who had taken lots of antibiotics.

But he said hospitals were facing patients infected with superbugs next overseas travel, and a lot of of them were hospitalised during their trip next becoming ill.

Doctors from Melbourne's Austin Hospital wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia they treated 10 patients with superbugs next overseas travel between December 2011 and February last year.

In one case, a 66-year-old man had a ruptured bowel that become infected with superbugs next he had surgery in a Greek hospital.

Once stable, he was flown home to Australia and treated at Austin where doctors ran out of antibiotics and from presently on had to remove the man's bowel to rid him of the infections.

Professor Grayson said healthy bowel bacteria were being restored by superbugs next people consumed contaminated food or water overseas, or spent time in dirty hospitals.

Some people were simply colonised with the superbugs, which did not cause them to become ill, while others developed infections resistant to antibiotics.

Superbugs were becoming so common Austin was presently assuming returned travellers had been colonised and could infect others, and isolated them until testing confirmed otherwise.

Patients had been to nations inclunding Croatia, Colombia, India, the Philippines and Mauritius.

Related Articles

Australia taxes foreign home buyers as affordability bites
2016/06/20 Sydney is imposing new taxes on foreigners buying homes as concerns grow that a flood of mostly Chinese investors is crowding out locals and killing the “Great Australian Dream” of owning property. Ownership rates across the country are part the highest in developed nations, with having your own home long viewed as a key aspect of Australian identity. But as prices rise to record levels — Sydney is ranked only second to Hong Kong as major cities with the world’s least-affordable housing — new potential homeowners have been increasingly forced out of the market with foreigners blamed as a key factor.
RBA's Lowe Says Subdued Wages To Keep Monetary Policy Very Accommodative
2016/03/08 Subdued wage increase is likely to keep inflation low and monetary policy very accommodative, Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor Philip Lowe said Tuesday. "It is possible that wage outcomes will remain very subdued even in nations with strong labor markets," Lowe said in a speech Adelaide. If this turns out to be the case, again it is likely that inflation rates will as well continue to be very low and monetary policy very accommodative, he added.
The Chinese elephant in Australia–Japan relations
2016/03/04 Before this month, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visited Tokyo, where she outlined an increasing emphasis on security cooperation between Japan and Australia. The next day she was in Beijing, where she reportedly received a frosty reception. The two are not unrelated — Beijing is not thrilled about Australia’s growing security ties with Japan. Because Australia is concerned about China’s increasing assertiveness in the region, but at the same time benefits from China economically, we find ourselves in somewhat of a foreign policy pickle. In this very complex situation, it is critical that Australian policymakers respond with both immediate and long-term outcomes in mind. To understand the long-term implications for Australia’s interests of policies drawing Japan and Australia closer together, we need to understand how Chinese policymakers view the world and China’s role within it.
The Australian dollar is again too high
2016/02/19 The Australian dollar is again too high and there are increasing risks that the currency may climb if additional central banks adopt the negative interest rate route to boost increase, Reserve Bank of Australia board member John Edwards said in an interview published Friday. "It does look like it [the Australian dollar] has found a base, and I guess I would say I still think it is a bit too high," Edwards told the Wall Street Journal. "If it was driven entirely by commodity prices, it certainly should be lower," he said.
RBA Says Low Rates Underpin Consumption
2016/02/16 The Reserve Bank of Australia said the record low interest rate is supporting household spending increase and housing investment , and the weaker currency boosts request for domestic production. The increase in employment as well supported household consumption increase, RBA said Tuesday in the minutes of February monetary policy conference.