'Superbug' bacteria gang up on us, fueled by antibiotic use, nursing home study suggests
And trying different antibiotics to control one such "superbug" may only encourage others lurking nearby, according to new findings made in hundreds of nursing home patients by a team from the University of Michigan. In fact, the researchers say it's time to think about such bacteria as members of an antibiotic-resistant ecosystem in healthcare environments -- not as single species that act and respond alone. Forty percent of the 234 frail elderly patients in their study had more than one multidrug-resistant organism, or MDRO, living on their bodies. Patients who had specific pairs of MDROs were more likely to develop a urinary tract infection involving an MDRO. The researchers created a map of interactions among bacteria and classes of antibiotics, which they've published with their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Eventually, that kind of mapping could help healthcare providers. For instance, they could choose to treat a p...