Posted on 01/18/2008 9:52:14 AM PST by JOAT
(NewsTarget) Nearly five percent of patients in U.S. hospitals may have acquired a particular antibiotic resistant staph infection, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
Researchers surveyed a total of 1,200 hospitals and other health care facilities from all 50 states, and found 8,000 patients infected or colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) -- or 46 out of every 1,000. This suggests that up to 1.2 million hospital patients across the country may be infected every year.
Colonized patients are those who were found to be carrying the bacteria in or on their bodies, but who had not showed any symptoms of disease.
"This rate is between eight and 11 times greater than previous MRSA estimates," APIC wrote.
The majority of the infections had originated within the medical facility; 67 percent arose in patients being treated for general medical conditions (such as diabetes or pulmonary or cardiovascular problems) and not in intensive care patients.
APIC recommended simple measures, such as hand washing, to prevent the spread of MRSA within medical institutions. A number of studies have shown that many health care workers are not appropriately vigilant about washing their hands consistently.
"Hand hygiene is the most important means of preventing the spread of infection," said APIC President Denise Murphy.
MRSA is resistant to all forms of penicillin, which has earned it the moniker of "superbug." Due to its drug resistance, it is twice as fatal as other staph infections.
In 1974, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 2 percent of the staph infections occurring in medical facilities were cases of MRSA; in 2004, the estimate had risen almost to 63 percent.
"Killing MRSA infections is easy," countered consumer health advocate Mike Adams. "Manuka honey easily kills MRSA infections, as does colloidal silver, tea tree oil and literally thousands of other botanical medicines. While conventional medicine remains baffled by this antibiotic resistant infection, the world of natural medicine has known how to beat such infections for literally thousands of years," Adams said.
Worldwide, approximately 2.7 percent of S. aureus carriers are estimated to be infected or colonized with MRSA.
Worth paying attention to.
That’s not surprising, and it’s why the old-school doctors still tell you to avoid surgery whenever possible. They know. It’s the “we can put a pin in your broken bone to make it look perfect after it heals” crowd that bears watching.
Now there’s apparently an awful strain of MRSA spreading quickly through the gay community in CA. Very scary.
Very worrisome indeed. Even if you stay away from hospitals—which isn’t always possible—this stuff is still getting out into communities as other people carry it out of the hospitals.
Something that scares me, is hospitals that have carpeted rooms. Those floors cannot be mopped up with sterilizing cleansers. (Just imagine what has landed on that carpet.)
When I had major surgery four years ago, I was very concerned about MRSA. My doctor put a sign on the door stating that hands must be washed before touching patient (me). In five days, I only saw two people wash their hands before touching me. Lord knows where their hands were before they came into my room.
I’m not at all comfortable with the figures being presented here. I worked in a moderate sized hospital in a large metropolitain area of the nation. That hospital alone had 120 thousand admissions per year, and it was only one of 200 hospitals in that region. Expand that out statewide and nationwide, and you’re talking about a massive amount of admissions each year.
1.2 million infections sounds like a serious number of instances of infection to be sure. Is that representative of 11% of the hospital admissions? I seriously doubt it.
This doesn’t pass the sniff test.
I should have sited a figure of 5% of the admissions, not 11. I mixed up the 11 times great with the 5% of admissions figure. Sorry about that.
I still think the overall percentage is high.
I wonder how much of this crap can be traced to illegals from third world countries.
Good to see ya back yorkie.
I had surgery and had a room mate with a serious illness.
Being on the post surg nothing phases me meds I remember NOW that once really nice nurse for some reason was scooting around on the floor to do something and she did this more than one shift as in a few times she was on caring for us.
Looking back I think MRSA ALERT MRSA ALERT.
The article can be dismissed with extreme prejudice when this quackery appears.
I like to avoid places with sick people whenever possible.
This came up in a story a week ago here, where the police broke down a door with a swat team to drag some 11-year-old kid from his paramedic father and take him to the hospital for tests, which were all negative.
Many argued that it was better to be “safe than sorry”, but my position is that going to the hospital is never “safe”, and is in fact a major risk that has to be weighed against the possibility of harm from not getting treatment.
Good to be back. Thank you. ;-)
When I got to the hosp. to see my dad, there were signs everywhere - to wear mask and gloves, and sanitize before leaving room.
The nurse told me they had originally thought that MRSA had invaded the cancer on his back - but tests proved that it was not the ‘superbug’. I still had to glove up, until the CDC confirmed the results. (I think he said the CDC.)
So, they are being extremely cautious, at his hospital in AZ.
(Glad you didn’t get MRSA - thanks to a diligent nurse!)
One of my grandfathers was a doctor for over 50 years. When he was about 75 (about 25 years ago), I asked him "what's the secret of long life?" His response: stay away from doctors and stay away from hospitals. Of course, given that I expected a different answer, I asked him to explain. He said that doctors perform too many unnecessary surgeries, and that every single time you go under and get cut you are at risk of great, life-shortening, complications. Further, these operations are mostly done in hospitals where the superbugs live despite the best attempts of knowledgable people to maintain a sterile environment (yes, this was true even 25 years ago). He said that we have been given a magnificent machine, one capable of self-repair, and that if it was taken care of it should last for about 85 years. "Taken care of" meaning: eat right, exercise and get a good night's sleep.
Yeah, it is that simple. He lived to be nearly 86, despite not taking very good care of himself (he loved cigars and ate damned near anything you put in front of him, resulting in a permanent beach ball under his shirt). Damn, I miss him.
I remember not to long ago on the various threads where MRSA was being discussed that I called for the hospitals to TELL PEOPLE when they have these infections in their facilities. Boy did I get an ear full of how that is not possible, how it was unreasonable, blah, blah, blah.
My mother-in-law has COPD. She has been in and out of hospitals over the holidays. Guess what? She now has MRSA.
The medical industry cares more for the continued money train than they do about people’s actual health. Flame away.
I’ve heard many say it is overblown, but I’ve known too many folks who contracted it. And it isn’t like I associate with IV drug users, prostitues, or third world immigrants.
One lady I currently know has it and has been in and out of the hospital for thee years now.
her husband died from it and believe it or not so did one of her cats!
Needless to say, I don’t vist her house too often without the hazmat suit with the self-contained breathing unit turned on!
We now test all patients on admission to our unit. People are arriving to hospitals seeking treatment already carrying MRSA. Handwashing is the number one prevention of the spread of infections.
Bears repeating. Also of note is that the strain of bacteria in hospitals is not nearly so virulent (dangerous and sometimes deadly) as the strains that are appearing on the street, in schools--
San Francisco is a bad place for this bacteria.
No flames from me.
All this political talk about medical ins.
I think (I am insured very well) a big problem is the medical health facilities. $$$ over care.
I would not go to a hospital for care after being my son’s bedside advocate after 29yrs and seeing/observing how things have gone to hell in a handbasket.
I know folks who have spent their careers working at the same hospital and having been taken over by a large corperate buy out and they cannot wait to retire due to the horrendous daily errors that the avg. patient is never aware of.
There are a few good Medical Centers in our country but over all your right it is about the $$$$ profit over patient care.
I think that is a great question. I live on the border and I heard of MRSA here long before it was in the news. To me there sure seems to be a connection. A health care worker and I were talking about this yesterday and I guess the official line is that antibiotic infections are on the rise due to over prescribing antibiotics and people not taking all of their antibiotics as prescribed leading to super infections. I still wonder if we are not seeing infections from other countries that we simply can’t deal with and no one wants to admit to that with the border being still pretty open to anyone and everyone that wants to cross.
I’m curious about all the talk of health care workers not washing their hands- in the past few years I haven’t seen any health care workers not wearing gloves, and when my husband was in the hospital in May, the nurses caring for him made a point to put new gloves on in front of us before touching him- each and every time. Also one poster mentioned carpet on hospital floors? WOW, I haven’t seen that in any facilities I have been in, but that has to rank among the worst ideas ever to battle infections of all types.
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