Siouxsie Wiles • Jan 08, 2015 •
Researchers in Germany and the USA have just published a paper in the journal Nature describing a new antibiotic they have called Teixobactin (1). This study is good news; the World Health Organization warned last year that cancer chemotherapy and routine surgery will soon become life-threateningly risky because of the worldwide rise in antibiotic-resistant … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Sep 26, 2014 •
In this week’s New Zealand Medical Journal is a paper by Deborah Williamson and Helen Heffernan on antimicrobial resistance in New Zealand (1). This comes hot on the heels of the WHO report which gave a global picture of antibiotic resistance (2), and highlights what the big challenges are for New Zealand. So what are the antibiotic resistant superbugs that … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Nov 19, 2013 •
One of the big news stories today was about the death of Brian Pool, who according to Stuff’s Michelle Duff is “believed to be New Zealand’s first victim of an aggressive superbug, caught while he was overseas, that is resistant to every type of antibiotic.” One of the doctors who treated him, clinical microbiologist … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Mar 07, 2011 •
In a recent post about the ‘superbug’ Staphylococcus aureus, I mentioned reading an article in the weekend Herald about a guy who had suffered badly from a series of major infections, including an ESBL superbug bacterium So what is this ESBL superbug? ESBL stands for Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases, a group of enzymes that are able to deactivate … Read More