Drug-Resistant Germ Found in Michigan Man

ATLANTA — A staph germ that has resisted medicine’s drug of last resort has shown up for the first time in the United States, the government said Thursday.

“The timer is going off,” said Dr. William Jarvis, a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We were concerned it would emerge here, it has emerged here and we are concerned we’re going to see it popping up in more places.”

A strain of staphylococcus aureus bacteria found in a Michigan man in July showed an intermediate level of resistance to vancomycin, one step from immunity to the drug, the CDC said. The CDC and the Michigan Department of Health would not identify the man or say where he lives.

The patient, who suffered kidney failure, had been taking vancomycin for half a year for a recurring infection from an abdominal catheter used for kidney dialysis. He now is being treated with a combination of drugs, including vancomycin, Jarvis said.

The Michigan discovery came three months after a similar resistant strain was found in Japan.

Jarvis said the new strain is rare and should not deter people from seeking hospital care. Nonetheless, U.S. hospitals were alerted to watch for the strain.

Staph bacteria are the No. 1 cause of hospital infections. They are blamed for about 13% of the nation’s 2 million hospital infections each year, said the CDC. Overall, the 2 million infections kill 60,000 to 80,000 people.