Superbugs 'Colonize' Australian Babies in Hospitals, Doctors Scramble For Control

Australian doctors are trying to control a potentially deadly superbug discovered in more than 20 babies in Casey Hospital and Monash Medical Centre in the southeast part of Melbourne.

The antibiotic-resistant bacterium or "superbug" may have traveled in one baby to another Melbourne hospital. The particular hospital which the medical community fears the superbug, also known as vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE), was first acquired.

Dr. Rhonda Stuart, Monash Hospital's head of infection control, said 21 babies have been placed under special treatment and intensive care units after found they were found positive with superbugs.

VRE is a type of bacterium that can spread in the gut. For healthy people, the presence of such bacteria is harmless but for those with weak immune system due to cancer or kidney transplant, serious infections can develop.

VRE does not respond to vancomycin, an antibiotic used to treat serious infections in the body. According to Dr. Stuart, no baby has fallen ill yet since the superbug has "colonized" their guts without causing any harm to their bodies. However, doctors fear the superbug could cause an untreatable infection in babies if the bacterium enters the bloodstream.

Doctors are observing proper hand hygiene and environmental control to prevent the babies from developing an infection. Dr. Stuart noted cases of superbugs had been found in hospitals in Victoria in 2013 but this was the first time that the bacterium was found in newborn wards. She said Monash Health is currently working to contain the superbug.

According to infectious diseases experts, doctors continue to encounter infections which cannot be treated for the first time since the invention of antibiotics.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the world may be entering a post-antibiotic era. The so-called "wonder drugs" may no longer be useful in eliminating superbugs.

WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan said something as simple as a grazed knee can become a risky infection. According to Australian National University Prof. Peter Collignon, who is also a microbiology expert, a "positive death spiral" can be caused by the overuse of antibiotics on humans and animals.