Hospital Bug Becomes Issue in Britain

NY Times ^ | April 22, 2005 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[Born Conservative]

Some experts believe strict infection control measures, such as nurses washing their hands between every patient contact and isolating infected patients, can help substantially.

They're not doing this already? No wonder they're having these problems.

[Born Conservative]

I think it's more human nature than anything. When someone gets sick, they think an antibiotic will cure them (even for viruses). When they take an antibiotic and start feeling better, they stop the antibiotic and "save it for next time". Both of these situations help develop resistance.

[Kozak]

We need to get back to first principles in infection control, the stuff Lister set up before antibiotics. Hospitals should NOT have crap like carpeting, curtains cloth chairs etc in the patient rooms or on the wards. It should be all tile, vinyl, blinds things that can be scrubbed down and disinfected. This stuff, infection control was all learned, and now gradually forgotten as we have gotten sloppy because of antibiotics.

[Wiseghy]

Welcome to National Health Care.

Oh, and by the way, it took 10 months for most of these folks to even get into the hospital.

Someone should post those UK disease mortality rates again.

[anniegetyourgun]

Best estimates are that hospital infections kill 80,000 Americans a year.

[corkoman]

one way to help stop it is to say no to Moms with kids with viral respiratory infections who demand antibiotics.

Just say no.

[FormerACLUmember]

Socialized medicine hellholes in Britain include open co-ed wards, unchanged in 100 years. This is something inconceivable to Americans, but hey, its "free."

You take you life in your hands in this fithy British wards.

[Logophile]

We need to get back to first principles in infection control, the stuff Lister set up before antibiotics. Hospitals should NOT have crap like carpeting, curtains cloth chairs etc in the patient rooms or on the wards. It should be all tile, vinyl, blinds things that can be scrubbed down and disinfected. This stuff, infection control was all learned, and now gradually forgotten as we have gotten sloppy because of antibiotics.

My mother, a former nurse, is appalled at the general lack of concern for cleanliness in U.S. hospitals. She complains about the carpet on the floor, as you do; but her biggest complaint is that the hospital staff do not wash their hands before touching a patient.

[bobdsmith]

Actually this is all a lie. Bacteria "evolve" resistance according to evolution, but evolution has been disproven time and time again.

The truth is that these resistant bacteria were created and must have been trapped somewhere until they were recently disturbed. Perhaps in a cave or something.

[nkycincinnatikid]

bump

[neverdem]

Best estimates are that hospital infections kill 80,000 Americans a year.

Do you have a reference?

[armymarinemom]

''A nurse might have 100 times a day where she has to wash her hands. The alcohol gel is an irritant. It dries out the hands, and dry irritated hands are more easily colonized with MRSA,'' said Dr. Mark Enright, an MRSA specialist at Bath University in England. ''It's a very complex, interrelated set of things.''

I thought studies have shown that the waterless hand wash really isn't as good as running water and soap. You can also wash your hands till the cows come home and it will not stop you from shedding MRSA if you are growing it in you armpits, groin, tonsils, sinuses or scalp.

I've been on staff twice during an MRSA outbreak. We always found it growing in really hard to get to areas of furniture, such as the underside pedestal of an OR table where the table locks. Infected staff has always had it growing in places other than their hands.

[hinckley buzzard]

This sounds like a subset of the findings of the Institute of Medicine report in 2000-2001, which estimated a total of 100,000 unnecessary deaths annually caused by medical treatment and hazards of the institutional environments in the US.

The problem of "hospital staph" has been long known and recognized here.

[neverdem]

"Best estimates are that hospital infections kill 80,000 Americans a year."

This sounds like a subset of the findings of the Institute of Medicine report in 2000-2001, which estimated a total of 100,000 unnecessary deaths annually caused by medical treatment and hazards of the institutional environments in the US.

That's what I thought, but that's a bit different from nosocomial infections. That IOM report was nicely dissected in the following report.

How Many Deaths Are Due to Medical Error? Getting the Number Right

[cherry]

this article is full of blarney......nurses are not the culprits...its every doctor or technician or family member who insists on going into isolation without garb and are notoriously poor at washing hands.....

what the heck does "dirty" have to do with anything?

this germ is found on probably most people IMO and it only is dangerous when it gets in contact with people who are immuno-suppressed/ chronically ill...

it has been found on the skin of football players......

the proliferation of various diseases or germs in our society today is very much BECAUSE of our behaviour and our demands.....

let's be honest.....most people feel cheated if they go to the doctor and don't get a presciption or two.....

we've been passing out antibiotics like candy for some 30 yrs now.....

we smoke...we overeat....we drink too much....we take far too many drugs into our system and then we wonder why these "germs" can become so prevalant...

[GretchenM]

fyi

[Carry_Okie]

I thought it was vancomycin resistant staphylococcus aureus that was the really scary bug. Is that incorrect, or are we just not there yet?