SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio scientists are studying new ways to combat a microscopic threat. Scientists call the bacteria a remarkable, powerful pathogen.
Now, the National Trauma Institute is calling on San Antonio experts to help fight its effects.
Patients in the Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit at hospitals like University Hospital in San Antonio are at risk from a tiny bacteria that produces a toxin, especially patients on ventilators.
It’s called mycoplasma pneumoniae. Microbiologists at the U.T. Health Science Center are trying to unravel its secrets.
The recently discovered toxin inflames cells and makes patients sick. Microbiologist Dr. Joel Baseman has been studying this insidious infection for decades.
“Because it causes an inflammatory response, it results in airway narrowing that makes it even more difficult for the individual to have a competent lung function,” Baseman explained.
The National Trauma Institute is granting UTHSC money to determine how frequently this infection occurs in patients on a ventilator and how it affects outcomes. Hospitals in Boston and Los Angeles are also involved in the study.
“These individuals will be treated differently, because that’s the plan, than they would have been if we didn’t know the organism and toxin existed,” Baseman said.
Baseman believes new drugs, and eventually vaccines to treat these microscopic invaders, may change therapies and increase survival of patients all over the world.
This research could ultimately lead to better ways to treat other chronic health problems like COPD and asthma.
