User login
Enter your username and password here in order to log in on the website:
Please note: While some information will still be current in a year, other information may already be out of date in three months time. If you are in any doubt, please feel free to ask.
Changing germ situation
- Question
- Dear ladies and gentlemen,
I have for a few month again and again the Haemophilus parainfluenza in the sputum result, additionally further germs, which change however permantently and do not reoccur regularly even without a treatment, such as Burkholderia gladioli, agglomerans panloca, stenotrophomonas.
From the classical medical point of view there has until now not been a comment on the germ situation, as it can not be explained why the found bacteria change regularly.
My question: Does it make sense to fight the Haemophilus in order to avoid further colonization of bacteria or is it "normal" that one simply waits how the situation develops?
How does a possible treatment look like? Many thanks!
- Answer
- Hello, this is a difficult question, and there is no simple answer to it. The better the microbiological laboratory is, the more germs are found - beneath also those, which are not relevant.
Of course it is still true, that one does not like to see Staphylococcus or Haemophilus influenza in the lung and tries to fight them. In your special case you mention the Haemophilus parainfluenza which is not as virulent as the Haemophilus influenza and is regarded more to be part of the "normal flora". Other germs, such as Stenotrophomonas are "bred" by frequent antibiotic therapies and are sometimes difficult to eradicate if at all, similarly to Pseudomonas. It is going to be even more difficult, if some germs can be detcted once, then not anymore or at the next investigation totally different germs. Which one has to be treated and how?
This is an inidividual decision of the doctor in charge who knows you and can estimate if and how a germ, which has been detected, should be treated and if yes, how. Please talk to your CF physician and discuss this with him, as like with laboratory findings, results from the microbiological laboratory have to be judged together with the clinical findings- and this can be done best by the CF-physician in charge together with the patient.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Joachim Bargon - 02.02.2011
