CDC issues steps to battle drug-resistant germs

Tuesday, March 26th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) _ The government launched a new campaign for doctors and hospitals Tuesday aimed at slowing the growth of so-called supergerms _ powerful bacteria that develop resistance to overused antibiotics.

An estimated 1 million hospital infections each year and tens of thousands of deaths are blamed on drug-resistant germs.

Among the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

_Avoid infections by limiting the use of catheters, the thin tubes that let fluids pass in and out of the body, and by vaccinating more patients against the flu.

_Don't overuse antibiotics, particularly vancomycin, a last-resort drug that fights staph infections. About half of all staph germs in hospitals are resistant to meticillin, the standard treatment, and are increasingly resistant to vancomycin.

Health officials conceded that antibiotic resistance cannot be stamped out. As long as doctors use drugs to fight bacteria, the survivor germs will develop into more powerful strains.

``The bugs are developing resistance faster than we can develop the drugs to combat them,'' said Dr. Julie Gerberding, a CDC infectious disease expert. ``They keep one step ahead of us.''