Link: Infection Control Today
WASHINGTON, D.C. — If avian flu wings its way to the United States and changes genetically into a disease that spreads rapidly from person to person, the death toll would depend largely on what hospitals do when the first victims come in for treatment, according to a study by the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID).
If hospitals have effective infection control measures in place, they will prevent avian flu from spreading to other patients who did not come in with it. If not, bird flu would race through hospitals, infecting patients and staff.
“Shoddy infection control is poor preparation for flu and poor homeland security as well,” cautioned Betsy McCaughey, RID chairman and former lieutenant governor of New York. The report, “Unnecessary Deaths,” co-sponsored by the NationalCenter for Policy Analysis (NCPA), highlights the grave consequences of poor infection control in most American hospitals.
“One out of every 20 patients gets an infection in the hospital,” McCaughey said. “Infections that have been nearly eradicated in some countries, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are raging through hospitals in the United States.”
