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By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:18am BST 28/04/2008 A superbug capable of killing previously healthy youngsters within 48
hours is on the rise in Britain's playgrounds, and has left at least 10
children fighting for their lives.
Cases of the bug, known as Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), have more
than doubled since 2005, official figures show. Doctors are particularly concerned that many young people could have
been exposed to the infection in their school playgrounds or in local parks. Children are especially vulnerable to PVL, a member of the
Staphylococcus aureas family of infections, and it can combine with
MRSA, the deadly hospital superbug. Once contracted, the infection acts quickly to kill off white blood
cells, an essential part of the body's immune system. The bug can also enter a patient's skeleton, where it becomes
particularly hard to cure. Doctors often have to treat the disease by
removing infected bone. Cases of PVL combining with MRSA were first reported in America several
years ago and are becoming increasingly common. Doctors claim that the Government is not taking the threat of the bug
seriously enough. Mark Enright, professor of molecular epidemiology at Imperial College
London, said: "This infection can kill healthy children in one to two
days, but the authorities are continuing to treat MRSA as purely a
hospital problem and trying to assuage public opinion." Professor Richard Wise, a leading microbiologist, told a Sunday
newspaper that he warned a Government health minister of the threat
three years ago. Prof Wise said the minister told civil servants: "This needs to be
sorted. Get it sorted." Cases of the infection have been reported from the south coast to
Birmingham, and a number of different strains have been identified. The
cases include a six-year-old girl who contracted the infection after
falling from her scooter. The infection spread from her shin through her
body, and has left her brain-damaged. Daniel Roberts, a nine-year-old from London, fell seriously ill after he
picked up a graze playing football and it became infected. "One day he
was playing happily, and the next day he couldn't see, speak or move,"
said his mother, Sherean, 33. Daniel was in a coma for a month and is
now largely confined to a wheelchair. A spokesman for the Health Protection Agency said: "The risk to the
general public of becoming infected with PVL-S. aureas is small and the
majority of the strains identified in the UK are treatable with many
antibiotics, but it is always good practice to maintain appropriate
hygiene measures, which include proper cleansing and disinfection of
cuts and minor wounds." Two years ago, a nurse and a patient at a West Midlands hospital died
from the PVL form of the MRSA bug. The infection can cause symptoms ranging from minor skin problems to a
deadly form of pneumonia. Official figures show that recorded cases of the PVL infection increased
from 224 in 2005 to 496 in 2006.
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