VRE in Arctic birds
In the same edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases as a report on Campylobacter jejuni in macaroni penguins in Antarctica, there is a report about vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in glaucous gulls in Point Barrow, a remote area of Alaska.
Vancomycin-resistant enterococci are an important problem in human medicine, mainly in hospitals where they can cause sporadic infections and outbreaks of infection. These infections can be difficult to treat because VRE is resistant to many antibiotics, including vancomycin. VRE is not very common in animals in North America at this time, but there is concern that it could be an emerging problem, because as VRE rates in people increase the bacterium gets spread more commonly to animals. There have been many more reports of VRE in animals in Europe. This has been largely attributed to the widespread use of avoparcin (a drug related to vancomycin) as a growth promoter in food animals in Europe, a practice that was common until the mid 1990s, but is now banned in many countries.
This study demonstrates that organisms like VRE can be spread to wildlife in one of the most remote regions of North America. As the authors state "This spread suggests that few (if any) places on earth may be protected against the spread of such resistance, and the dispersal mechanisms are far more efficient than previously thought."
These two reports show how well (and expectedly) infectious agents can travel. They are also good examples of why we need to be thinking globally, ecologically and truly in the mindset of “one medicine” if we really want to understand infectious diseases.
Preventing infections in the home
There is a nice, concise commentary in the most recent issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal about preventing infections in the home. It covers three important organisms: MRSA, Clostridium difficile and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). An excellent aspect of this particular commentary is its relatively low-key approach, with an emphasis on routine, basic practices such as hand hygiene. It also includes some comments about pets that are similarly well-balanced and go along with a lot of what we've been saying on Worms & Germs Blog. For example, in discussing MRSA, they state:
"Because domestic pets may serve as a reservoir of MRSA, hands should always be washed thoroughly with soap and water after contact with animals or their feces. In cases of outbreaks within a family of an infection caused by community-associated MRSA that cannot be arrested, a colonized pet may need to be temporarily removed from the home. However, it may be prudent to re-emphasize the importance of personal hygiene before taking such a drastic measure."
Overall, it's a commentary you might find useful. It can be downloaded by clicking here.
