Viridax™

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year, nearly 3 million people in the US acquire an infection while in hospital, resulting in perhaps 90,000 to 100,000 deaths per year. More than 70% of the bacteria that cause these infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics commonly used to treat them.

Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) is the major cause of infections in US hospitals. Almost half of all Staph infections in the US are caused by strains that have become resistant to the most commonly prescribed antibiotic, Methicillin. Some strains of Staph have already shown some degree of resistance to all antibiotics, including to Vancomycin, the current treatment of last resort, raising the fear that an invincible strain is near at hand.

Staphylococcus aureus and many other species of Staphylococcus (Staph) are common bacteria typically encountered on the skin and in the nasal passages of healthy people. Staph can cause serious infections of the skin, bone, soft tissue, eye, respiratory tract and blood stream, and they are one of the most common causes of skin infections in the United States. Most Staph infections are minor, inciting such conditions as pimples, boils and other common skin ailments, and most can be managed without antibiotics. However, Staph can also cause serious and sometimes fatal systemic infections, such as may result from ordinary surgical or trauma wounds.

In the past, most serious Staph infections were treated with penicillin. During the past 50 years, treatment of these infections has become more difficult, primarily because Staph have become resistant in various degrees to nearly all antibiotics, including the commonly used penicillin-related antibiotics, such as Methicillin. The forms of Staph that are resistant to methicillin and other antibiotics are known as Methicillin-Resistant Staph aureus (MRSA).

Of the many available antibiotics, Vancomycin generally provides some measure of success. However, a new form of resistant Staph, known as Vancomycin-Intermediate-Resistant Staph aureus (VISA) has emerged to further confound treatment. The newest and most frightening form of antibiotic-resistant Staph is known as Vancomycin-Resistant Staph aureus (VRSA). VISA and VRSA cannot be successfully treated with Vancomycin, but fortunately, nearly all VISA and VRSA isolates have been found to be susceptible to some other FDA approved antibiotics. The delay to treatment is always costly and can be fatal.

VISA and VRSA infections are becoming more common, and the fact that they are present suggests that the incidence and prevalence of these infections will likely become even greater. Federal agencies in the US, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, state clearly that perhaps the most serious infectious disease health crises in the world today are the emergence and spread of resistant forms of Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and Tuberculosis.

To date, people who have developed VISA or VRSA infections generally had underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, kidney disease or immune suppression, or multiple previous infections with MRSA. The greatest numbers of VISA, VRSA and MRSA infections are contracted in hospitals and clinics, most generally in patients who are on intravenous catheters, who have had more than one recent hospitalization, or who have had recent treatment with Vancomycin or other second-line-of-defense or last-resort antibiotics.

Recent reports of Community-Associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections in patients with no known risk factors have serious public health implications. Conventional therapeutic options for these infections are untested, so the potential exists for high morbidity and mortality. Clinical definitions have been established and new molecular approaches have allowed investigators to distinguish CA-MRSA from traditional Nosocomial (hospital-acquired) MRSA strains. There have been several reports of CA-MRSA infections throughout the world, including several outbreaks in the United States. Transmission has occurred by close physical contact in situations involving children in day-care centers, children and adults on Indian reservations, athletes, military personnel, correctional facilities, and men having sex with men. Of concern, these patients are otherwise healthy individuals with no known risk factors for MRSA infection.