Science / Medicine : Antibiotics Resistance Affirmed

An investigation in Finland has documented a significant increase in resistance to the antibiotic erythromycin by the type of bacteria that caused the sudden death of Muppets creator Jim Henson. The findings, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, may mean that doctors are losing a powerful weapon in the fight against “group A streptococcus,” which can cause pharyngitis, rheumatic fever, scarlet fever, wound infections, kidney disease and a host of other serious illnesses.

The results also come at a time when a growing number of bacteria are developing resistance to established antibiotics, probably because the drugs are overused or used improperly. Resistant strains of venereal disease are becoming more prevalent. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a growing problem.

Penicillin can still kill group A streptococci, but for people who are allergic to penicillin, erythromycin is the favored alternative. Yet in tests of 4,708 samples of group A streptococci collected from blood, pus and infected throats, a group led by Dr. Helena Seppala of the National Institute of Public Health in Turku found that from 1988 through 1990, the level of erythromycin resistance increased dramatically.

In blood cultures, only 4% were resistant in 1988, compared with 24% in 1990. In 1990 alone, the resistance rate in throat cultures jumped from 7% to 20% from January to December. That same year, the resistance rate in pus samples increased from 11% to 31%.