Deadly superbug hits Australia

Amy Corderoy
Sydney Morning Herald

A deadly superbug that has ravaged Europe and North America has arrived in Australia, but experts fear it is being missed because of inadequate testing.

Up to 40 per cent of serious cases of Clostridium difficile, or C diff, are possibly being missed in New South Wales, researchers have found. The bug often causes severe gut problems.

I’m really scared about this. I think we are heading for a very dark time, I’m afraid

Specialised labs are finding highly toxic superbug strains of the bacteria more often but the extent of the problem is unknown because the strains are not the subject of routine testing.

In May, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Rosemary Lester revealed that 14 Victorians had died from C diff after picking it up in hospitals and aged-care facilities over a 15-month period in 2010 and 2011.

Thomas Riley, a professor of Microbiology at The University of Western Australia and an expert in C Diff, said his lab had seen a dramatic increase in a superbug strain known as 244 towards the end of last year.

He believed there was a “massive under-reporting” of the bug, and health departments around the country had been too slow to respond.

“I’m really scared about this. I think we are heading for a very dark time, I’m afraid,” he said.

In the past 12 to 18 months, the 244 strain had gone from being non-existent in Australia to being the third most common strain, accounting for five per cent of tested cases.

He said routine testing of C diff strains was urgently needed.

Part of the problem was that while infectious bacteria was commonly spread among patients in hospital, C diff seemed to be spreading throughout the community and it was not known why.

“There is a lot of nasty C diff in the community, it is severe disease,” he said.

He suspected imported food could be responsible for spreading the bug.

Superbug strains of C diff are more widespread in North America and Europe.

Between six and 30 per cent of patients die from the disease and deadly cases are becoming more common, according to data published by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.