ABC Program – Rise of the Superbug: four Corners

[Claire Boardman]

RISE OF THE SUPERBUG: FOUR CORNERS MONDAY, 29TH OCTOBER 2012 at 8.30pm on ABC1
Antibiotics are the wonder drugs of modern medicine. Theyve allowed doctors to save and extend life by killing infection and enabling ground breaking surgery. But imagine a world where antibiotics dont work that would be a place dominated by superbugs, bacteria that dont respond to antibiotics. Scientists say this would end many modern medical procedures and they claim the threat is greater than we realise.

This week on Four Corners reporter Geoff Thompson looks at the rise of superbugs, visiting the hot spots around the world where the misuse of antibiotics is creating a breeding ground for these bacteria and he tells the horrific stories of those whove contracted infections that cant be controlled. He also reveals that Australian health officials are making decisions that could open the way for a deadly superbug to infect Australians living in the far north of the country.

every time we take an antibiotic were giving the bug a chance to become a superbug … the more of us that take antibiotics inappropriately, the greater the chance in the community a superbug will come.

And thats exactly whats happening in India, where antibiotics are not restricted in their use. As a result a new superbug, New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase or NDM-1, has evolved. Not only is it deadly in its own right, it’s also capable of genetically modifying other bacteria to make them superbugs.

Superbugs like this have infected people whove been injured in accidents while travelling overseas. In other cases, apparently healthy people return from abroad only to discover that a simple medical procedure effectively unleashes the bug. In one instance, a healthy middle-aged man went for a prostate biopsy. The procedure was done successfully but one day later he became desperately ill. A superbug, possibly contracted while travelling overseas, had moved from his bowel into his bloodstream making him critically ill.

In the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, close to the Australian border, the misuse of antibiotics has contributed to the rise of a superbug form of Tuberculosis. For seven years the Queensland and Federal Governments funded TB clinics for PNG nationals in the Torres Strait. These clinics were the last line of defence that could stop the superbug coming to the Australian mainland. But the closure of these clinics in June this year has left the job of treating TB patients with the PNG Government , funded by AusAID. This could increase the risk of superbug TB coming to Australia.

RISE OF THE SUPERBUGS, reported by Geoff Thompson and presented by Kerry OBrien, goes to air on Monday 29th October on ABC1 at 8.30 pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 30th October at 11.35 pm. It can also be seen on Saturday at 8.00 pm on ABC News 24, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Messages posted to this list are solely the opinion of the authors, and do not represent the opinion of ACIPC.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives – registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new message send an email to aicalist@aicalist.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to aicalist-request@aicalist.org.au.

You can unsubscribe from this list be sending ‘signoff aicalist’ (without the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au

[Author]

Posts