New Zealand Listener – August 03, 2019

(Ann) #1

AUGUST 3 2019 LISTENER 15


E


aster 2019. Aucklanders Mike
and Mary Kelly are staying at
their South Island bach – an
old whitebaiter’s hut with-
out power, phone or water.
Just the getaway they need
from their respec-
tive businesses.
Mike, who originally trained
as an organic chemist, has a
voice-recognition technology
company. Mary imports kilims
from Turkey.
One night, as Mike lies
awake in bed listening to
the wild West Coast surf, he
becomes aware of an irritat-
ing pimple on his knee, which
by morning has become sore
and the area around it a little
angry. Over the next two days

it worsens, and his leg stiffens. They are
just about to drive to Wanaka to see a
doctor when they hear there is a district
nurse staying in Haast. She gives Kelly
Flucloxacillin, an antibiotic that is active
against most staphylococci and almost all

streptococci, which are the usual causes of
skin infections.
A day later, there’s no improvement. In
fact, it’s much worse. The Kellys are get-
ting worried, being so far from help. They
decide to end their holiday early and book
flights back to Auckland
from Queenstown. By the
time they get to Queens-
town Airport, he can hardly
walk.
Back in Auckland, they
go immediately to an A&E
clinic in Ponsonby. He is
prescribed another lot of
Flucloxacillin and told to
report back if there’s no
improvement overnight.
His leg continues to throb
and swell alarmingly. This
time, the doctor sends
Kelly straight to Auckland
City Hospital, where he is
admitted and the infection
is cultured. After 48 hours,
staff confirm it is a strain of
Methicillin-resistant Staph-
ylococcus aureus (MRSA)
causing his cellulitis, and
give him intravenous Van-
comycin, appropriate to
treat his particular strain.
Kelly is put in a room on
his own. In some coun-
tries, MRSA infections are

SI
M
O
N

(^) Y
O
U
N
G


SCOURGE


OF THE


SUPERBUGS


Fitness and youth are no guarantee of protection


when an antibiotic-resistant form of infection takes


hold, as two Kiwis recently found. by GLENDA LEWIS

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