Posted on 05/28/2008 10:33:24 AM PDT by 60Gunner
Once again, the media has released a "nature is out to kill us all" article. Source: Comcast News. The writer of the article was, to be quite blunt, pretty damned irresponsible in selecting the information with which the reader is presented. Go figure.
I will break this down point by point and fill in the blanks after each article snippet. My comments are in boldface:
Para.1: More than 10,000 people per year are hospitalized with Clostridium difficile.
Response: 10,000 people is about 0.00003% of the population of the United States. Hardly a widespread epidemic.
Para. 2: The germ is resistant to some antibiotics.
Response:Most germs are resistant to certain kinds of antibiotics. It isn't because they are superbugs, but because the actions of some antibiotics do not affect the microorganisms metabolism. What must be remembered here is that no antibiotic works for every germ. That's why different types of antibiotics have been developed. We take a sample, grow it in a culture, and expose it to different antibiotics to determine its susceptibility.
Para.3:
Well, they’re both involved in vile-smelling, watered-down, offensive and abnoxious sh*t...I’d say they have more in common than not.
Actually, I think your math is a bit off, it’s not .00003%, it’s .003%.
You had me thinking I was safe, but now I’m really worried.
It very clearly says 10,000 MORE cases per year,not 10,000 cases total.....with 300,000 cases of C. Diff in 2005...double the number in 2000. Or course, that makes 30,000 more cases per year, but they might have been talking about the "more virulent" strain. Sounds like it's becoming more of a problem every year and the People should be informed about this nosocomial infection.
Deaths in 2004....5500....double that in 2000....sounds like more of a problem every year and the People should be informed about this nosocomial infection.
Death through the sloughing off of your intestinal lining and crapping yourself to death.....sure sounds fun...maybe the People should be informed about this nosocomial infection?
...but WTH do I know....I only work with the stuff and we have a non-antibiotic treatment for the 2 toxins produced by C.diff in phase 2 clinical trials as I speak.....going phase 3 in the Fall.
My brother has been in and out of the hospital with this for several years. It’s very nasty...
....and an “epidemic” is merely a greater disease infection rate “than expected”. There is no “percentage of the population” necessary to be defined as such.
For the complete article including further data interpretation related to overall mortality rate, please go here.
Thanks for your understanding and your comments.
/Gunner
After my emergency c-section I got a damn nasty wound infection and had to be on all manner of antibiotics , wound opened , debrieded ...it was 4 months of hell .
After 6 weeks of antibiotics my Dr. ordered me off to my surprise since the wound was still infected . He was worried about C-Diff ( I had the BIG D at least 10 times a day and was losing weight at 1.5 lbs a day 6 weeks after delivery and I looked like SHIT ) since I was working ER until getting pregnant. He had the now novel concept of letting my body and good wound care do the rest of the job , and not relying on just antibiotics .
Go get some yogurt and eat it at every meal was the command . I actually think that was a good thing because I really feel if I had stayed on the antibiotics I'd be dead.
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