Communicable diseases were the subject of both good and bad news in 1997. Several newly emerging infections provoked concern, as did the spread of strains of bacteria that cause familiar diseases but that have become resistant to the antibiotics routinely used for treatment. There was also evidence, however, that this problem could be ameliorated by more prudent use of antibiotics.
Arguably the most ominous development was the isolation of a resistant strain of Yersinia pestis, the organism responsible for bubonic plague, from a patient in Madagascar. It was insensitive to every one of the antibiotics normally administered to combat this life-threatening disease. Because bubonic plague is acquired from fleas that carry the bacterium from infected rats, there was little chance of epidemics in most countries. Nevertheless, the discovery of the multiply-resistant strain was disquieting, especially since the resistance could be passed on to other, initially sensitive strains of Y. pestis.
There was dramatic evidence from Finland of how more selective prescribing of antibiotics could lead to a decline in the prevalence of resistant bacteria. This followed anxiety earlier in the 1990s over increasing resistance to erythromycin in streptococci, which cause skin and respiratory infections. National guidelines were instituted so that hospital outpatients received erythromycin only when strictly necessary and only in the required dosage. As a result, the frequency of resistant strains in throat swabs and pus samples fell over four years from 16.5% to 8.6%. Although such a trend might have been predicted, its magnitude was unexpected. It was also the first conclusive demonstration of the benefits of the discriminating deployment of antibiotics.
Federal health statistics documented a dramatic one-year decline in the U.S. death rate for HIV/AIDS, a 26% drop between 1995 and 1996. The latest annual report showed that HIV infection, which had been the leading killer of Americans 25-44, now ranked second in that age group, behind accidents and their adverse effects (largely from car crashes) and just ahead of cancer. Mortality from HIV had increased significantly between 1987 and 1994; the first evidence that mortality was leveling off appeared in 1995.
Nonetheless, there was renewed concern about prevention of new HIV cases, particularly among young people. It was highlighted by an alarming case in which a 20-year-old HIV-infected man may have created a one-man AIDS epidemic. Nushawn Williams, apparently aware of his HIV status, had unprotected sex with numerous young women in a rural area of western New York and in New York City. In an unusual move, health authorities obtained court permission to bypass AIDS confidentiality laws and release the man’s name, which led dozens of women to get their blood tested for signs of infection.
On the AIDS treatment front, many patients receiving powerful combination drug therapy remained in good health. Hopes for a permanent cure were put on hold, however, when three teams of researchers reported that the virus could hide out in the body’s immune cells even in patients with no signs of the virus in their blood for as long as two years. The research suggested that although the virus can be held at bay, patients may have to stick with the drug treatment indefinitely unless new approaches can be developed.
Scientists found that along with AIDS, other serious infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, had recently been spread in medical settings by the use of contaminated instruments. Patients in South Carolina and Maryland were found to be infected with TB after they had undergone a common procedure, fibre-optic bronchoscopy, in which a lighted tube is inserted into the lungs for diagnosis or treatment. Researchers were able to prove that the infections were caused by bronchoscopes that had not been properly cleaned. About 460,000 patients undergo fibre-optic bronchoscopy in the U.S. each year.
Stricter hygiene precautions in slaughterhouses and butcher shops were recommended in the report of an inquiry into the previous year’s outbreak of food poisoning in Scotland attributed to E. coli. Although this bacterium was at one time considered to be entirely innocuous, strain 0157 not only attacks the intestinal tract but also can trigger life-threatening kidney failure. Nearly 500 people became ill and 19 died during the Scottish epidemic--the world’s second worst outbreak of disease caused by E. coli. Public health authorities in other countries were advised on measures to prevent the organism, which occurs in the feces of infected cattle, from reaching meat for human consumption.
An international team reported that a new drug, zanamavir, reduces the symptoms of influenza A or B if treatment is begun sufficiently early. Trials in 38 centres in North America and Europe indicated that zanamavir is a valuable supplement to vaccines for the treatment of influenza; some vaccines may not be effective against new strains of the virus.
Early in December a new strain of influenza appeared in Hong Kong. By the year’s end at least 16 people were known to have been infected, and 4 had died. Researchers determined that the virus was the first ever to have been transmitted directly from birds to humans. More than one million chickens, ducks, and geese were subsequently slaughtered in Hong Kong.
U.S. virologists also reported success in preventing rhinovirus infections by spraying into chimpanzees’ noses a substance to prevent the virus from invading their cells. Researchers believed that this method could be used to prevent the 50% of human colds that are caused by rhinoviruses.
There was a major advance in immunization against meningitis and pneumonia produced by Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib). Vaccines had been highly effective in recent years in preventing Hib infections in industrialized countries. There was, however, no comparable evidence of their efficacy in less-developed countries. The success of a new trial, conducted in The Gambia, indicated that a Hib vaccine will substantially reduce childhood deaths due to meningitis and pneumonia in less-developed countries.