Hong Kong - Filipino domestic helpers are at high risk to contracting a drug-resistant "superbug" infection, a Hong Kong Univeristy study published Sunday claimed. The study found more than half of the 64 non-Chinese cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococus aureus (MRSA) infections in the Hong Kong community last year were Filipino domestic helpers.
MRSA is a bacterial infection which is resistant to some of the strongest antibiotics. Usually it infects wounds but can cause complications such as pneumonia or blood poisoning.
Ho Pak-leung, professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, said the high infection rate among the Filipino group could be blamed on high use of antibiotics.
Of 155 recorded cases, 91 involved Chinese locals, 33 Filipinos, five Americans and Indians and two each from Nepal, Australia, Denmark and England. The remainder were single cases from various ethnic backgrounds.
Last year saw a record number of 166 community cases compared with 8,000 hospital-acquired MRSA.
Ho said he believed the figures were just the tip of the iceberg.
"It is spreading in our community. We need to do something before it is firmly established," he told the Sunday Morning Post.
MRSA is believed to have developed its resistance through the over use of antibiotics.
It was first identified in hospitals in the 1960s where it can prove life-threatening for those with weakened immune systems.
However, in recent years there have been a growing number of cases where the infection has been acquired outside hospitals within the community causing concern among health experts.
Filipinos number around 120,000 in the former British colony of Hong Kong. Most are employed as domestic helpers in the city of 6.9 million.
