Pat's Note: This news is consistent with the Gardiner Hypothesis that
MRSA (especially st398) is linked to pig production and mutated PMWS
and the excessive use of antibiotics used to keep the pigs alive.

http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=19555&group=General

MRSA spreads at alarming rate in Finland -HS

26.8.2008 at 10:53

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterium that
defies common antibiotics, is spreading at a record pace in Finnish
hospitals, national daily Helsingin Sanomat reported on Tuesday.

According to the paper, more than a thousand infections have been
reported since the beginning of the year, compared with the same
number throughout last year.

The health ministry has summoned hospital managers to a meeting to
think of ways to stop MRSA from spreading.



Pat's Note: The following two reports were published on
uk.business.agriculture in January.

The reported policy of the Finns to do nothing much about the outbreak
of what is obviously mutated PMWS was obviously mistaken

Pat Gardiner" <patgardiner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message 
news:9_KdnWyCcekthj_anZ2dnUVZ8tSdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxx


http://www.fi.tv/2008/01/31/swine-health-first-case-of-pmws-in-finland-cattlenetworkcom/


Swine Health: First Case Of PMWS In Finland (CattleNetwork.com)

January 31st, 2008

In December 2007, the Finnish National Food Administration, EVIRA, 
announced that the first case of PMWS (Postweaning Multisystemic
Wasting Syndrome) has been confirmed in Finland. The disease was found
in weaned piglets on a farm in Western Finland.


Pat's Note: Some more information in respect of PMWS in Finland. The
report is not detailed but it does suggest the presence of "old" PMWS
(probably the Canada 1991 strain) which was not harmless but not so
severe, earlier.

It now looks as if Finland are experiencing the onset of the more
severe strain. Britain and NZ had much the same experience, but in the
latter case one to each island.


http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=194507

Swine Health: First Case Of PMWS In Finland

In December 2007, the Finnish National Food Administration, EVIRA,
announced that the first case of PMWS (Postweaning Multisystemic
Wasting Syndrome) has been confirmed in Finland. The disease was found
in weaned piglets on a farm in Western Finland. PMWS was first
observed in Canada in 1991 and has since then spread to most
pig-producing countries of the world, including Finland's 
neighboring country Sweden. Sweden reported its first case in 2003.
Finland has, however, been spared from the disease until now. The
circovirus that causes the disease has, indeed, been present in
Finland for some time, but it has never caused symptoms typical for
the disease.

PMWS normally affects piglets between 6 and 14 weeks of age. Symptoms 
include chronic wasting, respiratory distress, diarrhea, poor
coordination and jaundice. There is no effective treatment for this
virus and mortality rates are high.

Finnish authorities will not impose any measures due to this finding.
The industry, together with the National Animal Health Care (ETU) and
the Association for Animal Disease Control, is handling the control of
the disease.

-- 
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:37:55 +0100, Pat Gardiner
 wrote:

>
>snip<

Pat's Note : and heer is a longer report on the same subject:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Antibiotic-resistant+MRSA+hospital+bacteria+spreading+faster+than+ever/1135238960807

Antibiotic-resistant MRSA hospital bacteria spreading faster than ever
Epidemic in Helsinki spreading to homes for elderly and outpatient
care

The antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA (Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus) is spreading at a record rate in Finland this
year. More than 1,000 new infections have been reported. Soon there
will be as many as there were all last year combined. 

     Most leading infectious disease specialists interviewed by
Helsingin Sanomat felt that action is needed now, if the problem is to
be brought under control. 

     “One can say that we are at a tipping point”, says Petri Ruutu,
head of the Department of Infectious Disease and Epidemiology at the
National Public Health Institute (KTL). 

     The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has called a meeting of
administrators of university hospitals to think of ways to stop the
bacteria from spreading. 
     
The most difficult situation with MRSA in the large hospital districts
has been in Pirkanmaa, which includes the city of Tampere. 

     This year the situation got worse in the Helsinki region as well,
were MRSA outbreaks increased at the beginning of the year. 

     A campaign launched after an epidemic at Helsinki’s Töölö
Hospital four years ago is no longer having any effect. 

      Ville Valtonen, head physician of the Clinic of Infectious
Diseases at the Helsinki University Central Hospital, says that the
nature of the epidemic has changed. “It has moved from hospitals to
long-term care and out-patient care”. 

      For instance, in homes for the elderly, the bacteria can spread
without warning, because infections are not examined as closely as
they are in hospitals. 

     There are medications that can be used against MRSA, but they are
more expensive and less effective than normal antibiotics. They also
have more serious side effects. 

      In Pirkanmaa, MRSA is calculated to have cost about EUR 2.5
million in higher costs. An MRSA infection patient spends an average
one week longer in hospital than a patient without the infection, and
even a symptom-free carrier is often given a private room and a
designated nurse. 
     
The most important weapon in fighting the infections is to have
sufficient personnel and that they should be meticulous in matters of
hygiene. 

     At the National Public Health Institute, head physician Jaana
Vuopio-Varkila suggests that one reason for the resurgence may be that
once the situation was brought under control, people became complacent
and less careful. 

     Architecture also affects the spread of the bacteria. Valtonen
feels that hospitals should be built with a sufficient number of
private rooms with their own toilets. “Structures are cheap,
infections are expensive.” 
     
The Suursuo Hospital in Helsinki has Finland’s oldest unit dedicated
to treating patients infected with MRSA. The unit is eight years old,
and ward nurse Marjo Savolainen says that there is plenty of
unnecessary fear related with the bacteria. 

      “One of our old men was recently turned down for a place in a
home for the elderly just because of MRSA”, she says. 

     KTL’s guidelines are that a carrier of MRSA can live a normal
life outside a hospital. 
     
MRSA is not the only antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could affect
hospitals. 

      For instance, an intestinal bacteria strain is spreading in
Greece, which, for all practical purposes, will not respond to any
antibiotic. 

     “There is fear that it might come here. Finns travel to Greece
very much”, Valtonen points out. 

-- 
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/