KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Cases of deaths caused by a superbug that usually plagues patients receiving long-term treatment which requires invasive devices have spiked ten-fold over the last four years, The Star reported.

Quoting Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, it said the family of germs called carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) caused 15 deaths in 2013 and, according to the Health Ministry, spiked to 150 deaths in 2017.

"However, the overall death rate of the CRE patients increased from 10 per cent  in 2013 to 18.3 per cent in 2017” Dr Noor Hisham was quoted saying.

"Antimicrobial resistance is becoming an increasingly urgent challenge for Malaysia.”

Dr Noor Hisham had in the report said in 2017, surveillance of six multidrug organisms showed that for every 10,000 admissions, eight patients would find themselves infected.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention classifies carbapenems as a class of highly effective antibiotic agents used to treat severe or high-risk bacterial infections, but CRE is a family of germs that is resistant to these antibiotics.

The report also quoted the ministry’s infectious disease national head Datuk Dr Christopher Lee who explained how CRE infections usually occurred in patients admitted in hospitals or nursing homes.

He explained that patients using devices such as ventilators, and urinary or intravenous catheters left them exposed them to the risk of recurring infections.

They would then require the use of certain long-course antibiotics to remedy these infections, which will eventually cause the bacteria to evolve and grow resistant.

Dr Lee warned how some CRE bacterias had over time become resistant to most available antibiotics.

"Infections with these germs are very difficult to treat, and can be deadly. One report cites they can contribute to death in up to 50 per cent of infected patients” he was quoted in the report.

Another worrying factor revealed by Dr Noor Hisham in the report was how antibiotic resistance had also become prevalent in the common food-borne pathogen Salmonella sp, with resistance against the antibiotic ampicillin up to 21.6 per cent last year, compared to 18.6 per cent as recorded in 2013.

"This is a worrying situation,” Dr Noor Hisham said.

Dr Noor Hisham also advised doctors to constantly adhere to hygiene guidelines while educating their patients regardless of their illness or antibiotics treatment.

He said pharmacists should also verify that patients have valid prescriptions, and patients in turn should ask about their medicine and take prescriptions as directed by doctors. 

Dr Noor Hisham also urged the rest of Malaysians to prevent against such infections, by taking immunisations, cultivating good personal, food, and environmental hygiene, and practising safe sex.