Just how safe are we when in Hospital care?
And by the way, the Jarvis quoted in the following article is not related.
Carl Jarvis
From: (HealthDay News) -- As many as 1.2 million U.S. hospital
patients may be infected each year
to antibiotics -- a rate almost 10 times greater than previous
estimates, a new study finds.
The research, conducted by the Association for Professionals in
Infection Control and Epidemiology, also found that as many as 119,000
hospital patients
each year may die from the tough-to-treat strain of bacterium, called
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The germ is spread
by touch and
can lead to dangerous skin infections, blood infections and pneumonia.
"This is a wakeup call that hospital administrators should understand
the importance of this problem," said report author Dr. William
Jarvis, an epidemiologist
and president of the consulting firm, Jason and Jarvis Associates.
The rate of MRSA was higher than previously been estimated, Jarvis
said. "Not only did we find MRSA in all states in all facilities, but
66 percent of
it was on the medical service, which runs counter to previous beliefs
that most MRSA was in intensive care units," he added.
One expert agreed that more needs to be done to fight this looming threat.
"In the early years of the 21st century, we are seeing the value of
antibiotics decline as more and more germs become resistant to them,"
said Dr. David
Katz, the director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale
University School of Medicine. "Methicillin resistant Staph aureus is
one important example
of this trend," he said.
The findings were based on surveys sent to 10,000 nurses, doctors, and
other infection-control practitioners and included data on almost
8,000 infected
patients from every state. More than 1,200 health care facilities --
21 percent of the nation's total -- were included in the survey.
The researchers found that 46.3 of every 1,000 patients had active
MRSA, which is eight to 11 times higher that previously estimated.
The report, the National Prevalence Study of Methicillin-Resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in U.S. Healthcare Facilities, was
released Monday.
In contrast, one 2005 study, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, estimated the MRSA infection rate at about 3.9 per
1,000 patients.
"Patients need to be aware of their risk of infection," said Kathy
Warye, chief executive officer of the Association for Professionals in
Infection Control
and Epidemiology, which sponsored the study.
"If they have any underlying disease, such as diabetes or a heart
condition, and it is likely they will be going into a health care
facility, they should
speak with their physician about the risks they may be encountering,"
Warye said.
In addition, patients need to be assertive in making sure that the
staff follows proper infection-control procedures, Warye said.
Jarvis said that basic steps can be taken to curb the rising rate of infection.
First, patients who are most at risk for MRSA need to be identified
and tested, he said. Patients who are infected need to be placed in
isolation. In addition,
health care workers need to follow proper procedures to prevent the
spread of MRSA, including washing their hands and disinfecting the
environment around
the patient.
"Indiscriminate use of antibiotics in both hospitalized and
outpatients is part of this problem," Katz added. "So is failure by
patients to complete courses
of antibiotics as prescribed. And perhaps an even greater influence is
the widespread use of antibiotics in feed animals," which also creates
resistant
strains, he said.
"Having advanced medicine with the introduction of antibiotics, we
cannot let it regress by allowing the drugs to become useless.
Policies to curtail the
spread of resistant germs are urgently needed," Katz said.
