South Dakota health officials are fighting an uphill battle to prevent the spread of potentially deadly infections that are increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Over the past few years, South Dakota has seen two significant outbreaks of CRE, an intestinal bacteria that is very difficult to kill with antibiotics and can have a mortality rate as high as 50 percent.
After extensive containment work, and by using a cocktail of antibiotics, medical professionals were able to control the outbreaks without major spreading or any fatalities. Overall, however, the state has seen 162 cases of CRE since 2012.
The spread of CRE and a few other dangerous antibiotic resistant bacteria have medical experts across South Dakota and the world scrambling to reduce the use of antibiotics overall and to encourage doctors and patients to use medications wisely.
Some South Dakotans are at higher risk of contracting an antibiotic-resistant illness, according to state epidemiologist Josh Clayton.
Clayton said the risk is highest among people who live in long-term care facilities or who are frequently hospitalized. Anyone with a catheter or medical portal is also at risk. Experts also say diabetics and people with the flu are more likely to get a resistant illness.
Some experts say the world is heading toward a crisis in which bacterial illnesses that were once easily treated with antibiotics could someday become resistant and impossible to kill. But doctors in South Dakota say reduced use of antibiotics, development of new antibiotics by pharmaceutical companies and greater hand washing by hospital staff and patients can help reduce the spread of resistant bacteria.
(Bart Pfankuch, South Dakota News Watch)