EDITORIAL: In-hospital infections

A major outbreak hit Teikyo University Hospital in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward, caused by the multiple-drug-resistant bacterium Acinetobacter.

Since August last year, 46 patients have been infected and at least nine may have died as a result of the infection.

From mid-May this year, the hospital suspected in-hospital infections and started investigating previous cases. Hospital officials did not report the suspicions to the public health center until early this month.

It has also become clear that information about the fatal cases was not fully shared within the hospital. Not only was the hospital's initial response too slow, but it also lacked any sense of urgency, which possibly worsened the situation.

Teikyo University Hospital is approved as a medical facility that provides highly advanced treatment. When the health ministry and the Tokyo metropolitan government conducted periodic inspections of the hospital in August, they found the hospital was weak in preventing infections.

But the hospital, for reasons unknown, did not report the infection cases. It should now conduct a thorough review of its operations, and other hospitals around the country should immediately review their anti-infection measures.

Drug-resistant bacteria are gradually spreading around the world, and Japan has also seen numerous cases.

At the Fukuoka University Hospital in Fukuoka, 26 people were infected with Acinetobacter between autumn 2008 and January 2009. Four of them died. In response, the health ministry issued a warning. But another infection case occurred in February this year at a hospital in Aichi Prefecture.

The battle against bacteria is always unpredictable. Ever since the first antibiotic penicillin was discovered, humans have been developing ever-stronger antibiotics and waging a war against bacteria that have gained resistance against existing drugs.

But the pace of drug development is losing ground against bacteria.

Major antibiotics are ineffective against multi-drug resistant bacteria like the one in the Teikyo case. And no drug works against so-called super-resistant bacteria.

The Acinetobacter is a common pathogen that can be found in soil and other places.

It is rare for a healthy person to fall ill after coming in contact with Acinetobacter. But infections in weaker people, for example, cancer patients with weakened immune systems, could lead to serious symptoms like pneumonia and blood poisoning.

A quick response to such bacteria is critically important. Last year, a super-resistant bacteria was discovered at the Funabashi Municipal Medical Center in Chiba Prefecture.

The hospital immediately formed a task force to deal with the in-hospital infection and sounded the alarm within the entire hospital.

The hospital moved the patients to private rooms and enforced strict sanitation measures inside the hospital. The hospital's response was effective.

Many previous cases underline the importance of basic sanitation measures, such as proper maintenance of medical equipment, including artificial respirators, and using soap to clean hands.

As soon as an infection is discovered, information should be shared within the hospital and the community to enable effective countermeasures. That is another basic rule that should be reconfirmed.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 6