Posted on 03/13/2013 8:56:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A new threat emerges as a strand of untreatable and potentially deadly bacteria has begun spreading throughout the U.S., and health officials say one of these bugs is in Los Angeles.
The bacteria, called C.R.E., is spreading throughout hospitals all across the country. These “superbugs” are resistant to almost all antibiotics, have high mortality rates, and can spread their resistance to other bacteria.
Dr. Suman Radhakrishna, the chair of infection control at the California Hospital Medical Center, says that these bacteria are usually found in the colon.
“They can cause bloodstream infections, urinary type infections, and bowel infections,” Dr. Radhakrishna said.
These infections have been fought by hospitals and long-term care centers for years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the superbugs have now been found in 42 states.
Dr. Radhakrishna reports that this bug is allowed to spread by the combination of excessive antibiotic use with the failure of health care workers to wash their hands.
“If they don’t wash their hands between patients, they are liable to carry the infection from one person to another,” Radhakrishna said. “So the entire community gets exposed to these bacteria, and then its a problem.”
The Los Angeles County Department of Health says they first became aware of these infections in 2010.
Let’s surely hope that this bacteria doesn’t spread through the gay community or the people who get this infection will be given special civil rights instead of being quarantined as they ought to.
Engineered?
there is absolutely no legal way to keep anyone in isolation or to prevent visitors from going in and out without washing hands...
there is the problem....
but dumping on care givers is always the easy way out....
its a federal mandate to wash hands in/out of rooms....gloves for all expected contact with blood,bodily fluids....
SEAL THE DAMNED BORDERS!
Think of all the surfaces these patients touch throughout the hospital before they are even assigned to a room. ER waiting rooms, exam rooms, xray, possible surgery, etc, etc.
Hey Cherry,
I couldn’t believe it either. The Mrs. graduated with RN/BSN two years ago and daughter will be RN this spring. Neither took microbiology. I tell you it is not required. Certainly it was years ago, but no longer. Sure hope I have an ‘oldster’ if I need care!
It would really help if the idiots who write this stuff were not too lazy to actually look up information and could write above the level of a 3rd grader.
From the CDC website:
CRE, which stands for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, are a family of germs that are difficult to treat because they have high levels of resistance to antibiotics. Klebsiella species and Escherichia coli (E. coli) are examples of Enterobacteriaceae, a normal part of the human gut bacteria, that can become carbapenem-resistant. Types of CRE are sometimes known as KPC (Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase) and NDM (New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase). KPC and NDM are enzymes that break down carbapenems and make them ineffective.
Healthy people usually do not get CRE infections. In healthcare settings, CRE infections most commonly occur among patients who are receiving treatment for other conditions. Patients whose care requires devices like ventilators (breathing machines), urinary (bladder) catheters, or intravenous (vein) catheters, and patients who are taking long courses of certain antibiotics are most at risk for CRE infections.
As long as it's just one, step on it and squish it. Done, humankind saved.
Thanks for that link. Fascinating, and the piece is well written.
Found this sentence troubling though:
Meat and seafood companies are spraying the viruses on their equipment to protect consumers from foodborne illness.
&&&
Reminds me of what happened with penicillin shortly after it was discovered. I remember reading that it was being put into all sorts of products as a prophylactic, which, of course, helped to make bacteria resistant and caused other problems, as well.
Quick...blow the bridges!
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