Posted on 03/25/2011 7:15:29 PM PDT by neverdem
Researchers find 356 cases of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, mostly among elderly. It's a relative of E. coli, resistant to most antibiotics except colistin, a drug so powerful it can cause kidney damage. Studies in the U.S. and Israel have shown about 40% of infected patients die.
A dangerous drug-resistant bacterium has reached Southern California healthcare facilities, according to a study released Thursday by Los Angeles County public health officials.
Researchers found 356 cases of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, or CRKP, at healthcare facilities in Los Angeles County, mostly among elderly patients, said author Dr. Dawn Terashita, a medical epidemiologist with the county Department of Public Health.
"We think that this is increasing," Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the county's public health chief, said of the infections.
The county health department required facilities to report the infections starting June 1, 2010, and Terashita analyzed reports through Dec. 31, 2010, filed by 52 hospitals and a regional lab.
She found 146 infections at eight long-term acute-care hospitals, including an outbreak at one hospital, she said. Another 20 cases were reported at nursing homes and the remainder at short-term acute-care hospitals. Fielding did not identify the facilities. County-run healthcare facilities had two patients test positive for CRKP this year and 20 last year.
The mean age of patients who tested positive in Terashita's study was 73, and more than half were female, she said. She did not study how many died or the source of their infections, although she said 38% were admitted to hospitals from nursing homes.
"We don't know did the patient acquire it in the hospital or did they acquire it in the nursing home before they were admitted," Terashita said.
Unlike other superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphyococcus aureus (MRSA), CRKP is an enterobacterium, a relative of E. coli, resistant to most...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
micro ping
Yikes, it probably was brought in from south of the border.
Stay outta the hospital - if you can!
No doubt the damage that has been caused to hospitals and health care in general due to more and more government involvement plays a large role. To save costs, they cut corners and people get sloppy. All you have to do is read about how awful and filthy hospitals were in the Soviet Union and how bad they are getting to be in the UK to know that socialized medicine is a disaster.
OK, so everybody knows that the government created aids to wipe out the homos. So now they have created one to wipe out the old people. The money we save on health care costs and SS benefits will save our culture!
/s
sfl
To be traced to workers from abroad, illegal or legal, that the U.S. govt. let in without proper screening.
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