Polish and European media alert that sixteen tourists in Gran Canaria resorts are infected with klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterium resistant to all antibiotics, and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control is haunting Europe. – It is amazing that the center knows about a dozen tourists, but does not know about thousands of people infected with a related bacterium of our country. Probably Poland does not inform about it – perhaps out of a desire to hide the problem, because European Union citizens are treated in the capital’s hospitals – says Tomasz Ozorowski, an outstanding microbiologist and president of the Association of Hospital Epidemiology.
- In resorts in the Canary Islands, tourists contracted a bacterium resistant to all antibiotics, which affects the lungs, but sometimes the urinary and digestive systems can cause sepsis. It is Klebsiella pneumoniae that produces OXA 48 type carbapenemases. The infection is confirmed by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and is threatening with the spread of bacteria throughout Europe.
- Meanwhile, in Warsaw, as well as in hospitals in Mazovia and Podlasie, we have six thousand infected people (these are only officially confirmed, so probably the tip of the iceberg) with a related, equally dangerous bacterium – Klebsiella pneumoniae New Delhi
- The situation is absolutely unprecedented in the EU countries. None of them reported an epidemic caused by bacteria with extreme antibiotic resistance and transmission of one strain per thousands of patients! – says Dr. Tomasz Ozorowski, who already a year ago warned against an epidemic in an interview with MedOnet
Is it really the European Center for Disease Control alerting that the bacterium can spread all over Europe or is it a problem that was blown up during the cucumber season?
Dr. Tomasz Ozorowski, president of the Association of Hospital Epidemiology: The European Center for Disease Control indeed confirms sixteen infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in people traveling to the Canary Islands. It published the report in early July. We are talking about Scandinavians traveling to the Canary Islands who were found to have bacteria called Klebsiella pneumoniae producing carbapenemases of the OXA 48 type.
Is this bacterium really so dangerous?
This type of bacteria is currently considered the most dangerous. It is resistant to all or almost all antibiotics and very easily causes outbreaks in hospitals. This type of Klebsiella pneumoniae is so dangerous because it produces enzymes called carbapenemases, i.e. enzymes capable of destroying even the strongest antibiotics. It can be resistant to all or almost all antibiotics, causes untreatable infections, and can easily cause outbreaks in hospitals. Moreover, it has the ability to pass resistance genes to other bacteria.
If contamination does occur, what will happen to us? What diseases can this bacterium cause?
Klebsiella pneumoniae causes infections that are the most common complications of hospital treatment, such as cystitis, pneumonia, infection of a surgical wound, or bloodstream infection.
What first symptoms should worry us?
In most cases, the infection is asymptomatic as the so-called gastrointestinal carriage that can only be detected by microbiological stool examinations. Infections occur mainly in people with gates to infection, eg with bladder catheters, postoperative wounds, etc. In about half of the patients, the carrier state disappears within a year – they permanently shed bacteria, but this process cannot be accelerated.
How can the spread of the infection be prevented? Simple hygiene is enough?
In order to prevent an epidemic in European hospitals, the ECKC recommends that all people who are admitted to hospitals and previously treated in hospitals abroad should undergo a test to detect latent carrier of this bacterium in the gastrointestinal tract.
It should be noted that the Scandinavians were infected in hospitals, so the risk of infection outside of hospitals in the Canary Islands is considered practically zero.
So Poles who are not going to the Canary Islands have nothing to be afraid of?
For Polish citizens, the epidemic situation in hospitals in Mazovia and Podlasie, caused by the related Klebsiella pneumoniae New Delhi, is incomparably more important than the risk associated with treatment in hospitals in the Canary Islands. It is puzzling that ECDC warns of the dangers of traveling to the Canary Islands and has not noticed the problem of thousands of infections caused by the same strain of New Delhi in Warsaw hospitals.
Why do you think?
I think it results from the quick description of the problem by the Scandinavians in accordance with the EU law ordering informing other countries about the occurrence of specific epidemiological threats for EU citizens. However, in my opinion, Poland either lacks the ability to reliably assess the situation of what happened in Warsaw and inform ECDC about it, or it is because of the desire to conceal a problem that is important for EU citizens who can and are treated in the capital hospitals.
Are these infections in Poland confirmed on a large scale?
Yes. The report of the National Reference Center for Antimicrobial Susceptibility (KORLD) for 2017 confirms that the spread of New Delhi in Mazovia and Podlasie has gotten out of control to such an extent that KORLD has already lost the ability to confirm further infections. So the situation got out of hand. Pretty shocking.
I would like to emphasize that the situation is absolutely unprecedented in the EU countries. No epidemic caused by bacteria with extreme antibiotic resistance and transmission of one strain per thousands of patients has been reported in any of the EU countries!
Why is this happening in Poland?
The recently published report of the Supreme Audit Office points to the reasons for this phenomenon – first of all, the ineffectiveness of hospital programs for the control of nosocomial infections, non-compliance with basic hygiene procedures, and shortages of isolation units.
And the lack of preparation for this problem and its underestimation has led to a situation in which doctors in Warsaw commonly inform their patients or their families about infections that cannot be cured with antibiotics.