By Sola Ogundipe & Olayinka Latona
RISK of contracting an infection while on admission in hospital is now a source of worry amongst patients on hospital admission in Lagos and environs.

Investigations by Good Health Weekly reveal that sharing a hospital room could potentially increase the  risk of picking up bacterial infections such as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and  Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus (VRE).

In a number of private and public hospitals, the  risk of picking up such infections could be as low as 0.5 per cent in the private wards or as high as 20 per cent in the emergency rooms and open wards.

A medical consultant at a public hospital on Lagos mainland who confirmed the development  said it was a common feature and a direct result of overcrowding. “It is not uncommon to find four, five six or more patients in a ward originally designated for two or three and it only stands to reason that each time a new patient is admitted, the risk of acquiring these  infections increases.”

Worst hit are patients on  longer hospital stay who can  expect to have many different roommates.

Research has shown that rates of hospital infections are higher in multi-bed settings than when patients are housed one to a room. However, it is not specific  exactly the relationship between number of roommates  and  risk of developing a hospital-acquired infection.

According to a study by Okesola  AO, Oni AA and Bakare RA on  control of hospital acquired infectionen entitled  Nosocomial infections: Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus auerus in wound infection in Ibadan, Nigeria, at the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, University College Hospital, Ibadan,   188 cases of wound infection seen in the UCH , between December 1994 and April 1995, 78 strains of staphylococcus aureus were methicilin resistant (MRSA). Vancomycin, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin offered the best effective treatment for MRSA wound infections, and were recommended as reserved drugs while gentamicin and cotrimoxazole are first line drugs.

In another study, entitled Antibiotic Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Abia State of Nigeria by Chigbu Chinwe .O. and  Ezeronye , O.U. at the Department of Biological Science, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, a total of 70 ear and nasal swab samples collected from 35 persons, 16-hospital population and 19 nonhospital population was examined for presence of Staphylococcus aureus.

Eighty percent of the population studied were found to be carriers of S. aureus. Of the 28 positive cases, 35.7 per cent were carriers of S. aureus in both the ear and nostrils, while 14.3 per cent and 50.0 per cent had it only in their ear and nostrils, respectively. The S. aureus isolates varied in their antibiotic susceptibility pattern when tested for their sensitivity to 16 antibiotics.

Staphylococcus or Staph is a group of bacteria that causes a variety of human infection in all age groups. It is the major causative agent in surgical wound infections and epidermal skin diseases in newborn infants. In 1959, methicillin, an antibiotic closely related to penicillin, was introduced to treat staphylococcus and other bacterial infections.

Within one to two years, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (S. aureus) started to be isolated that were resistant to methicillin.

These S. aureus bacteria were then termed methicillin-resistant. MRSA usually show resistance to many antibiotics. It is so antibiotic resistant, it is termed a “superbug” by some investigators.

This superbug is a variation of an already recognized human pathogen, S. aureus, gram-positive bacteria that occur in grape-like clusters. Distribution of S. aureus is worldwide: As many as 11-40 per cent of the population is estimated to be colonized.

The bacteria are usually found in the human armpit, groin, nose, and throat. In the majority of cases, the bacteria do not cause disease. However, damage to the skin or other injury may allow the bacteria to overcome the natural protective mechanisms of the body leading to infection.