Vancomycin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus – VRSA
Dr.Kut | Dec 28, 2009 | Comments 0
Vancomycin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus – VRSA
VRSA staph infections are rare, since most times staph infections can be treated by Vancomycin. Very few antibiotics can be recommended for treatment of VRSA and with the passage of time even these antibiotics are not effective enough. Vancomycin Resistant Staphylococcus constantly develops resistance to antibiotics used against them and hence become difficult to treat using any medicine. When the concentration of Vancomycin required inhibiting these bacteria is 4 to 8 micrograms/ml, and then they are further classified as Vancomycin Intermediate Staphylococcus Aureus or VISA. Till date, VRSA infections have been very rare, hence it would be wise to discuss a few cases of VISA and VRSA staph infections. The first case of VRSA staph infection was observed in May 1990 in Japan.
It was reported for a boy, four month old, for an infection which occurred after a heart surgery and could not be treated using Vancomycin. Finally the boy was treated successfully using a combination of different antibiotics. Such cases of VISA were later also reported from various countries like the USA, France, England etc making the number of VISA cases 17. Till date, 6 cases of VRSA staph infections have also been reported.
People found with VRSA or VISA were also known to have some weak background of a non healthy condition and suffered from various diseases prior to the diagnosis of VRSA staph infection. Some of these diseases are diabetes, kidney diseases and intravenous catheters. Some patients were also found to have MRSA staph infections earlier.
A gene called as vanA gene is traced as a cause of Vancomycin resistance in the staph. Most of the patients who are tested positive for Vancomycin resistant staph aureus had been previously infected by MRSA staph or VRE (Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci), which contains vanA genes. The transfer of vanA gene from VRE to MRSA could be a cause of VRSA staph infection.
The symptoms of Vancomycin Resistant Staph infection are similar to regular staph infections and include swelling, redness, pus secretion, blisters etc. The only difference is that the antibiotics which can treat normal infections are ineffective in case of VRSA staph infections. Like other MRSA staph infections, these infections can also range from mild infections to infections in internal organs which can prove a threat to life.
VRSA or VISA cannot be tested using any testing method. Some special tests recommended by researchers include:
- Vancomycin screen agar plate –brain heart infusion(BHI)test
- Reference broth micro dilution test
- Etest
- BD phoenix system test
- Disk diffusion test
Though no official list of antibiotics available for treatment of VRSA staph infections is present, still sampling and susceptibility tests used for each sample can give us a clear picture of which antibiotics can be useful against a particular VRSA. Thus, it is important to take test for each sample and properly diagnose the resistance of the bacteria. Some antibiotics which have been used in earlier cases are- Trimethropim / sulfamethoxazole, Linezolid, Quinupristin/dalfopristin, Tigecycline and Ceftobiprole.
VRSA infections are likely to recur; hence proper care should be taken even after the disease has been cured successfully. The patient should take utmost care of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation. No vaccine has been discovered yet to prevent VRSA staph infection.
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Filed Under: Infection • Staphylococcal Infections
