How’s this for a warning sign?
Doctors are warning Australians to stop travelling overseas for elective surgery, after a New Zealand man contracted a superbug that no antibiotic could treat.
Brian Pool, a 68-year-old teacher, is believed to be New Zealand’s first victim of an aggressive bacterium that experts believe he caught in Asia.
”It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a totally resistant bacterium,” said Dr Mark Jones, a clinical microbiologist at Wellington Hospital. ”Nothing would touch it.”
…Tests showed he contracted Klebsiella pneumoniae, a strain of bacteria that produce enzymes that are completely drug-resistant. ”It is likely he caught it while in India,” said Dr Jones. ”The bacterium probably became infectious after he had surgery for a hernia.”