Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Found in 37 U.S. States

Half a world away, doctors in India are fighting outbreaks of bacterial infections that are resistant to more than 15 types of antibiotics. But closer to home, a similarly scary bug is making the rounds in intensive care and other long-term units of American hospitals.

In at least 37 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, doctors have identified bacteria, including E. coli, that produce Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase, or KPC--an enzyme that makes bacteria resistant to most known treatments. It's much more prevalent in America than bacteria that produce NDM-1, the enzyme that has Indian doctors "hell scared," and, according to Alexander Kallen, a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the final outcome isn't much different: superbacteria that are hard to kill.

"It's got a slightly different structure than [NDM-1]," he says of KPC. "But the bottom line is they're two different ways to produce bacteria that are resistant to a wide range of antibiotics."

[Hospital Rooms Crawling With Drug-Resistant Germs.]

That's bad news for infected patients--the mortality rate for patients infected with KPC-producing bacteria has been estimated to be as high as 50 percent. Doctors are advised to do their best to keep the bacteria from spreading, which explains why the problem is most prevalent in hospitals and other close-quarter medical units. Infected patients are often isolated.

KPC has been seen in a wide range of bacteria, including E. coli, Salmonella, and K. pneumonia, which often affects hospitalized patients.

These superbugs are resistant to nearly every weapon doctors can throw at them, including carbapenems, a class of antibiotic that the CDC calls the "last line of defense" against infections that are resistant to other types of antibiotics. There are a couple antibiotics that have been shown to kill these superbugs, but often at great risk to patients. In fact, the FDA has associated the use of these effective antibiotics with an "increased risk of death" in patients with pneumonia.

That leaves many doctors scratching their heads. KPC-bacteria often grow on medical equipment such as catheters and ventilators, so doctors can sometimes remove that equipment or perform surgery to try to eliminate the infection from a patient's body.

[Are Kids Brown-Bagging Bacteria?]

CDC researchers, including Kallen, say that hospitals who haven't been vigilant about isolating patients with KPC-producing bacteria may have missed their chance. According to a paper co-authored by Kallen released last year, "failure to recognize CRE infections when they first occur in a facility has resulted in a missed opportunity to intervene before these organisms are transmitted more widely."

The good news is that, at least for now, KPC-producing bacteria generally only infects people who already have compromised immune systems. "It can move into the wider community," says Kallen, "but we haven't seen much of that yet."

--12 Infected With New Swine Flu Strain

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--U.S. News Health

jkoebler@usnews.com

Twitter: @jason_koebler

Continue Reading... Labels: Antibiotic-Resistant, Bacteria, found, states

11th victim found days after deadly crash on I-75

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The body of an eleventh person has been found in a pickup truck days after a deadly pileup on Interstate 75, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The victim was inside a Dodge pickup truck that crashed into a tractor trailer as it traveled south early Sunday, authorities determined Tuesday. The driver and another passenger in the pickup had not been identified early Wednesday.

The Highway Patrol on Tuesday released the name of an eighth person killed in the crash. Vontavia Kiara Robinson, 22, of Williston, was the driver of a Pontiac Grand Prix that was involved in the southbound crash around 4 a.m. Sunday. The name of a passenger who died in her car has not been released.

Authorities closed the busy six-lane highway just after midnight Sunday because a mix of fog and smoke from a nearby brush fire made visibility difficult. The road was reopened about three hours later after the Highway Patrol determined conditions had improved. The first pileup occurred a short time later.

At least a dozen cars, six tractor trailers and a motorhome collided. Some cars were crushed under the bellies of big rigs. Others burst into flames, making it difficult to identify victims.

The crash sent another 18 people to the hospital.

While Florida officials said they are willing to review their protocols in determining when to shut down — and reopen — a major highway. The Highway Patrol was also quick to point out that motorists must be prepared to quickly make good decisions because road conditions can change quickly.

Officials said the decision to close a road is made by a Highway Patrol supervisor, who relies on feedback from troopers who assess road conditions. They use information and forecasts from the National Weather Service. A key piece of information is an index estimating the humidity and smoke dispersion on a scale of 1 to 10. If the score is 7 or higher, the Highway Patrol's protocol is to close the road.

The index score for early Sunday had been forecast to be a 6 in the four-county region that includes the crash site, according to the National Weather Service.

Investigators continued piecing together details from Sunday's crash. The remaining bodies were so badly burned that dental records and vehicle identification numbers may have to be used to get positive identifications.

The dead included Georgia pastor Jose Carmo, his wife Adriana and their teenage daughter Leticia. Another daughter remained in the hospital with serious injuries.

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Continue Reading... Labels: After, Crash, Deadly, found, victim

3 years later, Mass. boat found off Spanish coast

BOSTON (AP) — A small fishing boat lost off Massachusetts after its crew was thrown out in rough seas has been discovered near Spain more than three years later.

Scott Douglas and Rich St. Pierre were tossed off the 26-foot-long boat in August 2008 and forced to swim two hours to shore. The U.S. Coast Guard says the boat was left adrift because the seas were so dangerous.

But the Coast Guard said Wednesday that the boat was found 20 miles off Spain on Jan. 17. It was intact but covered in rust and barnacles.

The Coast Guard says the boat likely got into the Gulf Stream, then headed east with the North Atlantic Current for the 4,000-mile trip. The agency says such trans-Atlantic trips are rare, but not unheard of.

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Anwar found not guilty of sodomy

8 January 2012 Last updated at 22:30 ET

Anwar Ibrahim said justice had been served by the court in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been acquitted of sodomy after a two-year trial.

Judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah said DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution was unreliable and discharged the case.

Mr Anwar, 64, has consistently denied the charges and called them a government bid to cripple his political ambitions and influence.

The government said the verdict showed Malaysia's judiciary was free from government influence.

Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia but, says the BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur, very few people are ever prosecuted.

'Justice has prevailed'

Mr Anwar had been accused of having sex with a former male aide. He had faced up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

But the judge said that there were questions over whether DNA evidence had been contaminated.

"The court is always reluctant to convict on sexual offences without corroborative evidence. Therefore, the accused is acquitted and discharged," the judge said.

The verdict was greeted with cheers from Mr Anwar's supporters, wife and daughters, our correspondent says.

Mr Anwar told journalists outside the courtroom: "Thank God justice has prevailed I have been vindicated.

"To be honest, I am a little surprised."

Information Minister Rais Yatim said that the verdict showed that judges were free to rule as they saw fit.

"Malaysia has an independent judiciary," he said. "The current wave of bold democratic reforms introduced by Prime Minister Najib Razak will help extend this transparency to all areas of Malaysian life."

The allegations against Mr Anwar surfaced just months after elections in 2008, in which he led the opposition to unprecedented gains at the expense of the ruling party.

This verdict comes ahead of elections due in 2013 but widely expected to be called later this year.

Hundreds of police and security personnel were on the streets of Kuala Lumpur ahead of the verdict, and thousands of Mr Anwar's supporters waited outside the court.

Mr Anwar was once Malaysia's deputy prime minister and an ally of former leader Mahathir Mohammad.

But he fell out with Mr Mahathir and was later jailed for corruption and sodomy. The sodomy conviction was later overturned and he was freed in 2004 after spending six years in prison.

He is now seen as the key figure in Malaysia's opposition coalition, which currently controls about a third of the seats in parliament.

In a tweet from his account minutes after the verdict, Mr Anwar looked ahead to the polls.

"In the coming election, voice of the people will be heard and this corrupt government will be toppled from its pedestals of power," the message read.

Continue Reading... Labels: Anwar, found, guilty, sodomy

UK police identify body found on queen's estate

LONDON (AP) — The remains of a woman found on one of Queen Elizabeth's vast estates belong to a 17-year-old missing girl, British detectives investigating the murder said Sunday.

Forensic tests identified the decomposed body as that of Latvian Alisa Dmitrijeva, who was reported missing from her home in eastern England in August, Norfolk Police said.

The body was found by a dog walker on New Year's Day in woodland three miles (five kilometers) from the royal residence at Sandringham House.

Sandringham, in rural Norfolk, is a vast estate where Queen Elizabeth II and her family traditionally gather to celebrate the holiday season. The royal family is not implicated in the crime in any way.

Part of the nearly 31-square-mile (8,000-hectare) estate is open to the public, and the body was found at Anmer, a hamlet of several dozen people.

Detective Chief Inspector Jes Fry, who is probing the case, said police are trying to find out about any activity that took place on or near the site in August through September, and looking for people who may have worked in the area.

Continue Reading... Labels: estate, found, identify, police, Queen's

World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world's first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

"It's very surprising because no one's ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination," Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

"This is evolution in action."

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan's research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.

The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia's east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.

It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

"If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion," Morgan said.

"It's enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters."

Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.

If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species -- a literal survival of the fittest -- Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.

"We don't know whether that's the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we've generated from these animals," he said.

"Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals."

The hybrids were extraorindarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn't appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.

Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.

"We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don't fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate," he said.

"And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two."

Continue Reading... Labels: Australia, found, hybrid, shark, World-first

Human remains found on UK queen's estate

LONDON (AP) — Human remains have been discovered on Sandringham estate, a vast area in rural Norfolk where the royal family retreats for the holiday season, local police announced Monday.

A terse statement posted to the website of the Norfolk Constabulary said that a member of the public found the remains on New Year's Day in an area of woodland at Anmer, a tiny village about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of London. The hamlet is home to several dozen people and sits around three miles (4.8 kilometers) from Sandringham House, the 19th property at center of several thousand acres of gardens, mudflats, woods, and farmland.

Police Sgt. Andrew Terry said he didn't know whether the remains were found on the site of Sandringham, but Britain's Press Association news agency identified Anmer as being part of the royal estate. No indication of the age or nature of the remains was given, and Terry said no further information would be released until Tuesday.

Sandringham has served as a private residence for British monarchs since 1862, and queen Elizabeth II traditionally retreats there with her family during the holiday season.

The estate's website says that half of the royal residence is rented out to agricultural tenants. There are also two stud farms, a fruit farm and a country park which, together with the estate's gardens, employ over 100 full-time staff.

Buckingham Palace referred questions about the find back to police.

___

Online:

Sandringham House: http://ow.ly/8g2IC

Norfolk Constabulary: http://www.norfolk.police.uk/

Continue Reading... Labels: estate, found, human, queen's, Remains

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Continue Reading... Labels: found, gunman, police:

Rainier gunman's body might have been found

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Woman found dead after abduction

2 January 2012 Last updated at 09:25 ET

A 20-year-old woman has been found dead after she was abducted from an address in east London where two other people had been stabbed.

Police said they believe the woman was called Kirsty Treloar.

She was taken from Brownlow Road, Hackney, at 07:10 GMT on Monday, and was later found stabbed in a car on Ryder Mews in Homerton, police said.

Just before she was kidnapped, a man aged 22 and a 24-year-old woman were attacked at the same address.

The man is in stable condition, while the woman suffered a minor injury.

Suspect 'fled'

A month old baby girl was also taken from the address to hospital as a precaution. She remains in hospital under observation.

Scotland Yard said it had launched a murder investigation.

A spokesman said officers were called to a row on Brownlow Road but, before they arrived, a suspect had fled in a grey Fiat Stilo car with the 20-year-old woman.

This vehicle was found abandoned in Ryder Mews, just off Homerton High Street, at about 08:30 GMT, and the woman's body was inside.

Police said they believe she is the same person who was kidnapped, although they said they were awaiting formal identification.

No further details of the suspect or any of the victims have been released.

Continue Reading... Labels: abduction, After, found, Woman

Murder inquiry after bodies found

12 December 2011 Last updated at 10:56 ET

BBC's Ed Thomas: 'Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with these deaths'

A murder investigation has started after the discovery of the bodies of a couple and their two young sons at a house in Leeds.

The bodies were found in a fire-damaged bedroom at a detached house in Sheridan Way, Pudsey, on Sunday evening.

Richard Smith, 37, and Clair Smith, 36, were found along with Ben Smith, nine, and one-year-old Aron Smith.

It is understood that West Yorkshire Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.

Det Supt Paul Taylor, from West Yorkshire's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: "Initially, we had concerns regarding the release of harmful chemicals or gases.

"Following testing, we no longer have any concerns with regards to those working at the scene and we will continue our investigations today.

"Inquiries are at an early stage and I would ask anyone with information about the incident to contact the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team."

'Beautiful boys'

Post-mortem examinations are due to be carried out later.

Dean Turnbull, a friend of the Smith family who had known them for about 15 years, said he was "in shock" over their deaths.

He said the Smiths were "a lovely family with lovely kids".

Friends of the family brought floral tributes to the scene of the tragedy

Mr Turnbull's wife, Sara, was in tears as she left flowers at the police cordon.

The message on her bouquet said: "You were such a beautiful family. All our love to you. We can't believe you are all gone."

Mr Smith's cousin, Gary Tempest, said: "It is so unbelievable this has happened.

"They were the perfect family."

Family friend Sarah Wilson was in tears as she laid flowers.

She said she once held Aron in her arms as her sister was a neighbour, and added: "Such beautiful little boys. Both of them."

Continue Reading... Labels: After, bodies, found, inquiry, Murder

Rita Hayworth's grandson found dead in NYC home

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Continue Reading... Labels: found, grandson, Hayworth's

Ex-N.Y. Mafia boss found dead by river in Canada

MONTREAL (AP) — The body of an alleged Mafia boss, who U.S. authorities said once led New York's notorious Bonanno crime family, was fished out from a river north of Montreal on Thursday.

Reports identified the body as Salvatore Montagna, although police wouldn't immediately confirm or deny the identity.

The FBI once called him the acting boss of the Bonanno crime family — prompting one of New York's tabloids to call him the "Bambino Boss" because of his rise to power in his mid-30s. Nicknamed "Sal The Iron Worker," he owned and operated a successful steel business in the U.S.

Montagna's death is the latest in a series of Mafia-related killings and disappearances over the last two years. He was considered a contender to take over the decimated Rizzuto family.

A provincial police spokesman said Thursday that a private citizen called after seeing a body along the shores of the L'Assomption River. The same person also reported that he heard gunshots, but Sgt. Benoit Richard said he couldn't confirm how the victim died.

"When (police) arrived, they saw a man lying near the river, they took him out of the water and started doing CPR with the help of the emergency personnel," Richard said.

Richard said police will await the results of an autopsy, scheduled for Friday, to determine the cause of death.

Montagna was born in Montreal but raised in Sicily and, although he moved to the United States at 15, he never obtained U.S. citizenship.

The married father of three was deported to Canada from the United States in 2009 because of a conviction for refusing to testify before a grand jury on illegal gambling.

He pled guilty to the minor charge, but it made him ineligible to stay in the U.S. Montagna had no criminal record in Canada and re-entered without trouble.

His arrival in Montreal occurred just months before members of the Rizzuto family began being killed.

The FBI had called Montagna the acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, an allegation his lawyer denied.

The Bonanno crime family is one of the five largest Mafia families in New York — one of the notorious criminal gangs that formed the original Commission, along with Al Capone and Lucky Luciano.

There had been speculation that Montagna had been part of the new Mafia leadership in Montreal and was trying to reorganize the leaderless group.

His death comes just two months after another man with Mafia ties, Raynald Desjardins, narrowly escaped death in a shooting in a suburb north of Montreal. Desjardins had close ties to Vito Rizzuto, the reputed head of the Montreal Mafia who is currently imprisoned in the United States.

A rash of killings and disappearances in late 2009 and early 2010 decimated the operation and have robbed him of many of his closest family members. Rizzuto's father and son were gunned down, as were other friends, while his brother-in-law simply vanished.

Montagna became the latest name on the list.

Continue Reading... Labels: Canada, Ex-N.Y., found, Mafia, river

Australian gets $100,000 after shampoo found clean

DARWIN, Australia (AP) — Authorities have compensated an Australian man $100,000 after he was wrongly accused of trying to smuggle drugs into the country in bottles of shampoo.

Neil Parry of Darwin spent three days in jail last year after he was arrested at Darwin Airport and accused of trafficking liquid ecstasy. His boat and two friends' houses were searched.

But his two bottles of Pantene Pro-V shampoo and conditioner contained exactly what the labels said.

Australian Customs and Border Protection said in a statement Monday that there were "mistakes made during the presumptive testing of Mr. Parry's goods" and additional procedures have been introduced when conducting drug tests.

Continue Reading... Labels: $100, 000, after, Australian, clean, found, shampoo