Research: Laos bacteraemia study19 December 2006 |
For the first time, researchers in Laos have published a study on the causes of bacteraemia - blood infections caused by invasive bacteria - in the local population. The study, published in the American Journal of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, will help to influence what the Ministry of Health and international organisations recommend as therapy and how individual doctors treat patients with these conditions.
Laos has a population of 5.2 million, the majority of whom are rural rice farmers, and life expectancy in the country is 54 years. Prior to the study, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, little was known about the causes and distribution of bacterial disease in the country, which is a major killer. The research involved a major collaboration between scientists from Laos, the UK, Thailand and Vietnam.
Dr Paul Newton and colleagues found that the most common cause of bacteraemia in both children and adults was Salmonella enterica serovar typhi, the cause of typhoid fever. In fact, almost half of all children (44 per cent) with community-acquired bacteraemia were found to have typhoid.
Among infants, the most significant cause of bacteraemia was Staphylococcus aureus, which can also cause pneumonia and skin infections. Over two-thirds of infants with clinically significant bacteria in their blood were found to have the S. aureus infection.
Health services will be now be able to target treatments more effectively.
Image credit: Kevin Lang