Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Allergies link to superbugs
‘Feral’ knife crime grows more violent
PENICILLIN allergies could be fuelling hospital superbugs, a study claims.
Such patients were 69% more likely to get MRSA.
Increased use of alternative antibiotics accounted for 55% of the risk rise, the US study in The BMJ said.
It added these may fuel drug-resistant bacteria so confirming penicillin allergy could be an “important public health strategy.” GANGS of “feral” knife attackers in London are inflicting worse injuries on victims than five years ago, reveals a senior police boss.
Met Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, who has dealt with violent crime for a decade, said weapons such as zombie knives, hunting knives, and machetes are being used more often.
Officers are having to practise “trauma medicine” on victims due to the levels of harm. Mr Hewitt told the London Knife Crime Summit: “The violence is getting greater.
“Five years ago, I would probably be talking about knife offences where there was generally a single puncture wound.
“We are now routinely seeing multiple stabbings. That is one individual stabbing somebody multiple times. And increasingly, we are seeing group offending as well. By that, I don’t mean there’s a group and one person is stabbing, I mean there’s a group of people who are all using weapons.
“Some CCTV footage is shocking and, quite frankly, feral, with a group of individuals bearing down on another person.”
There have been nearly 80 murders this year in London with concern about rising violence in the capital and nationally. Mr Hewitt said: “Every time anybody uses a knife against a person that’s potentially a murder.”
The rise in violence has been linked to the drugs trade, which “is drawing younger people into that world”, added Mr Hewitt.
On moped robberies, he expressed fears over “the level of recklessness that these young people are demonstrating”.