Unleashed an MRSA Epidemic
Over the past decade, the number of Washington hospital patients infected with a frightening, antibiotic-resistant germ called MRSA has skyrocketed from about 140 a year to more than 4,700. But these numbers, revealed by a Seattle Times investigation, don't appear in public documents. Washington regulators don't track the germ or its victims, and Washington hospitals do not have to reveal infection rates.
MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is spread by touch or contact. Six out of seven people infected with MRSA contract it at a health-care facility. Many people first learned about the germ in 2007 when the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that invasive MRSA infections claim at least 18,000 lives a year, more than AIDS.
But MRSA has been quietly killing for decades, and the entire time, there has been a simple diagnostic test that could have saved countless lives. However, not a single community hospital in Washington screens every patient for the pathogen.
The issue of antibiotic-resistant disease is a very serious one. It actually exacts a greater death toll than "modern plagues" like AIDS.
Compounding the problem is that not only are potent antibiotics over-prescribed in modern medicine, they are also widely over-used in agriculture – a fact that is grossly overlooked. In fact, agricultural antibiotic use is a MAJOR source of human antibiotic consumption, which contributes to the rise of antibiotic resistant "superbugs" like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
According to a study published in October, 2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), there were close to 100,000 cases of invasive MRSA infections in the United States in 2005, which lead to more than 18,600 deaths.
To put that number into perspective, HIV/AIDS killed 17,000 people that year.
The numbers are even more staggering when you include ALL hospital infections, not just MRSA, as approximately 1.7 million Americans contracted infections during hospital stays in 2007, and a subsequent 100,000 people perished from these diseases, according to the U.S. Center of Disease Control (CDC).
MRSA is a Man Made Plague
In order to effectively combat this epidemic problem, it’s important to realize that antibiotic-resistant disease is a man-made problem, caused by overuse of antibiotics. It makes little sense to blame the problem solely on lack of testing, hygiene, or proper disinfection techniques, although all those things are essential to stop it from spreading once it’s in circulation.
Hospitals are notorious for being hotbeds for dangerous germs such as MRSA, which spread via contact with contaminated surfaces, including the patient’s own skin if they carried it in with them.
The average human hand harbors about 150 different species of bacteria, and a swab of your forearm may reveal more than 180 species of bacteria, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Many of these bacteria are good and essential for your very survival. Others, like MRSA, can kill you, especially if your immune function is low or if it enters your internal organs or blood stream, as can happen during surgery.
But hospitals are by no means the only place where you can contract bugs like MRSA.
About 30 percent of people carry MRSA on their skin without any noticeable side effects whatsoever, and outbreaks have occurred that stemmed from places like schools and public gyms. Your house and even your pets are also places that can harbor and spread this dangerous bacteria.
Fortunately, protecting yourself from the devastating effects of this kind of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is still possible, by implementing some commonsense approaches.
Sources:Seattle Times November 16, 2008
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