A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Soil-based bacteria could help target tumours
A BACTERIA that lives in soil and targets tumours could soon be used to deliver frontline cancer treatment.
The bacterial strain is set to be tested on cancer patients in 2013.
Because the Clostridium sporogenes microbe loves low oxygen conditions, once injected into the bloodstream it will grow only inside tumours.
The bug has been genetically engineered to release an enzyme that activates a special anti-cancer drug.
Since this only occurs in tumours, no harm is caused to surrounding healthy tissue.
Prof Nigel Minton, heading the University of Nottingham team of scientists, said: “Clostridia are an ancient group of bacteria that evolved on the planet before it had an oxygen-rich atmosphere and so they thrive in low oxygen conditions.
“When Clostridia spores are injected into a cancer patient, they will only grow in oxygen-depleted environments, ie the centre of solid tumours. This is a totally natural phenomenon, which requires no fundamental alterations and is exquisitely specific. We can exploit this specificity to kill tumour cells but leave healthy tissue unscathed.”
The Nottingham researchers have overcome a key obstacle to the therapy by genetically creating a much-improved version of the all-important bacterial enzyme. It can now be produced in far greater quantities in the tumour than before. The new bug is also more efficient at converting the dormant drug into its active form.
Latest progress in the research was announced to the autumn conference of the Society for General Microbiology at the University of York.
Hospital emergency department 'dangerous'
A SENIOR nursing union official yesterday described conditions at the Midwest Regional Hospital’s emergency department in Limerick as “dangerous and unsafe”.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) industrial relations officer for the Midwest, Mary Fogarty, was speaking ahead of the results of a ballot today for industrial action by 60 nurses at the hospital’s emergency department.
Yesterday, Ms Fogarty said “the AE unit is not able to cope with the reconfiguration of services in the Midwest. The nurses have huge health and safety concerns over the unit.”
The nurses began their ballot in response to the HSE closing 25 beds in the hospital and working conditions at the emergency department. Ms Fogarty said there were 18 patients on trolleys yesterday morning.
A Healthstat report on the hospital marks the emergency department in the red zone, confirming that more than 20 per cent of patients are waiting 12-24 hours to be admitted with a small percentage waiting in excess of 24 hours.
The Healthstat report says the hospital is 22 per cent over budget for the first six months of the year, with a spend of €82.6 million – €14.9 million more than budgeted to the end of June.
In April 2009, the HSE closed 24-hour emergency services at Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals, centralising services in Limerick. Ms Fogarty said: “Reconfiguration is posing huge challenges and questions. The Midwest is down 100 acute beds as a result of reconfiguration.”
One in 10 in long-term care on antibiotics
A STUDY of healthcare-associated infections in Irish long-term care facilities (LTCFs) found that more than 4 per cent of residents had an infection at the time they were surveyed. The survey, carried out by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, found that respiratory and urinary infections were most common. One in 10 residents were on antibiotics, and 12 per cent of LTCFs surveyed had an antibiotic committee, while 8 per cent ran annual regular training on appropriate antibiotic prescribing.
