Hospitals Fail To Report Spread Of New Superbug 'More Dangerous Than MRSA'

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 11-5-2006 | Beezy Marsh

[gnarledmaw]

"...not all hospital staff were adequately trained in infection control and 47 per cent complained that much-needed cash for training..."

Infection control? I would be happy if some of these places had some concept of basic sanitation. I was recently in an emergency room and as I waited for a doctor I noticed that the floor and some of the equipment still had blood on it from the last guy.

Really, how much training and money could possibly be involved?

"OK, heres a mop, its for cleaning. This is bleach, you pour it in the friggin bucket..."

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Go into a hospital just to visit people? Wash your hands. A lot. And your face, when you get home.

[Atchafalaya]

We test for it "on request". I is not a big deal here in La. not even in the HIV pos population. Pneumocystis, TB (the previous two somewhat)and Cryptococcus ( oh yeah) are what we tend to see in our immune challenged patients.
Remember the media mantra
When in danger or in doubt,
run in circles,
scream and shout.

[editor-surveyor]

"Remember the media mantra
When in danger or in doubt,
run in circles,
scream and shout."

Exactly. - Last year they were chiding President Bush for not being prepared for "the coming pandemic" that never came. Be afraid.

[Atchafalaya]

If you do that after going to the grocery, shoe, barber shop, hardware, Wal Mart, you get the picture, you probably will be cold and flu free. Respiratory infections vector hand (yours) to mouth, eyes, nose; wash your hands you will be ok. Those with young kids in daycare are doomed; I know I caught every cold to come down the pike when mine were growing up. Bring a wipe(s) and wash your kid's face and hands!!! when you pick them up; too late for them but you can protect the one that will take care of them when they get sick, you.

[Atchafalaya]

It goes like this:
Deadly
Threatening
Dangerous
Impending Doom
Catastrophic
Destructive
George Bush
and when it doesn't happen the prophets of doom scurry to the MSM black hole for missed hit pieces and avoid any accountability.

[SC DOC]

Also of concern is Acinetobacter baumannii:

Superbug brought back by Iraq war casualties By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor Published: 08 November 2006

Injured soldiers returning from Iraq have brought back a superbug that has been linked with outbreaks in NHS hospitals where they have been treated, a health minister has confirmed. The links between casualties brought back from Iraq and outbreaks in the NHS have caused alarm within the health service and led to renewed demands for more dedicated wards for Britain's armed forces to enable wounded soldiers to be isolated more effectively.

The Health Protection Agency has urged NHS hospitals to step up their infection control measures as a result of the outbreaks of a strain of the superbug Acinetobacter baumannii which is resistant to many types of antibiotics.

"A multi-resistant strain of A. baumannii known as the 'T strain' has been isolated from casualties returning to the UK from Iraq," the Health minister Andy Burnham said in a Commons written answer.

He said the exact source of the infection had not been identified but US casualties returning to America had also been found to be carrying the superbug.

Experts in microbiology who were studying the links between the infection and those wounded in Iraq, said an injured soldier thought to have caught the infection in Iraq may have caused a large outbreak of the superbug in an intensive care unit in an NHS hospital in south-east England.

They reported that the superbug was also found in two hospitals in the Midlands in soldiers who had been injured while serving in Iraq. The HPA said last night it was thought the T-strain survived in soil and sand in warm climates such as Iraq.

There was criticism last month of the treatment of injured soldiers on NHS wards after reports that a paratrooper wounded in Afghanistan was threatened by a Muslim visitor at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, where many soldiers are treated. A campaign for a dedicated hospital for the armed forces was mounted with the support of forces' families. Tony Blair partially bowed to the pressure by announcing that troops would be given a dedicated ward at Selly Oak.

Reg Keys, whose son Tom was killed by a mob in Majar al-Kabir, Iraq, in June 2003, said the existence of the new strain of the infection underlined the need for dedicated facilities for the armed forces. "These lads are giving their lives for their country," he said. "The least they deserve is to be treated in military hospitals, not civilian hospitals, for reasons of security, but the existence of this superbug is very worrying. It proves the case even more for their own medical facilities."

Harry Cohen, the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, who tabled questions about the superbug, said: "It is a worry that this bug which is infecting some of the wounded in Iraq is coming back to this country and could infect other patients in NHS hospitals. It does show that we need more separate wards for the armed forces."

At one hospital in Birmingham the bacteria is reported to have infected 93 people, 91 of them civilians. Thirty-five died, although the hospital was not able to establish whether the superbug was a contributory factor.

A. baumannii is resistant to most common antibiotics and, if left untreated, can lead to pneumonia, fever and septicaemia. It has been identified in more than 240 military personnel in the US since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and has been associated with five deaths.

[RedWhiteBlue]

Mark Steyn wrote an editorial (a couple of years ago) about this bug being spread in Canadian hospitals.