Link: Staph Infections: Stealth Killers.
Great Article – well researched and factual – more at link above
This approach has worked in other countries. “In Denmark, MRSA was causing one third of bloodstream infections,” Farr says. “It took them about a decade to bring it under control, to less than 1%, and they kept it under control at less than 1% for the next quarter century. Similar dramatic results have been reported in the Netherlands, Finland, and western Australia.”
Betsy McCaughey, PhD, founder and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, reports that a few U.S. hospitals are proving that good hygiene solutions work. For example, the University of Virginia Hospital has eradicated MRSA; Pittsburgh’s Veterans Hospital reduced MRSA by 85%; the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Presbyterian Hospital slashed MRSA by 90% in its medical intensive care units; and 29 healthcare institutions in Iowa eliminated VRE, another drug-resistant germ.
McCaughey says these institutions have tackled the staph problem through rigorous hand hygiene, the meticulous cleaning of equipment and patient rooms, and the testing of incoming patients to identify those carrying MRSA. Wheelchairs and other equipment used to transport patients who test positive for MRSA are not used for other patients. Also, hospital staff must change their uniforms and footwear after entering the MRSA patients’ rooms before they are permitted in other areas of the hospital.
These may seem like routine precautions that most hospitals would implement. However, McCaughey, in a booklet titled “Unnecessary Deaths: The Human and Financial Costs of Hospital Infections,” shows that typical hospital hygiene falls far short in terms of adequately dealing with these diseases.
In the booklet, McCaughey says more than one half of the time caregivers fail to clean their hands before treating patients. Gloves are not a solution because pulling them on with dirty hands contaminates the gloves. Nearly three quarters of patients rooms are contaminated with MRSA and VRE. These bacteria are on cabinets, countertops, over-the-bed tables, bed rails, and other surfaces. Once patients and caretakers touch these surfaces, they become vectors for disease. Ordinary cleaning solutions are effective against these bugs, but surfaces need to be drenched for several minutes, not just sprayed and dried quickly.
On top of the failure to clean, there’s the matter of identifying carriers. “Most U.S. hospitals don’t routinely test patients to determine which ones are carrying MRSA and other bacteria,” says McCaughey. “Seventy [percent] to 90% of patients carrying MRSA bacteria are never identified.”
