Posted on 04/19/2017 8:29:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Going into a hospital? It's getting riskier because of drug-resistant infections -- the kind almost no drug can cure. Despite one federal government "action plan" after another, the germs are winning. Government authorities are clueless about how many infections there are, or how many patients are dying.
Alarming new research shows that one of the deadliest families of bugs, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, nicknamed CRE, may actually be striking three times more patients than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us. One lesson from the war against AIDS: Level with the public about the enormity of a problem if you want to start defeating it.
Government authorities are doing the opposite, helping hospitals conceal superbug outbreaks from the public and deliberately leaving mention of infections off death certificates.
Within three decades, these drug-resistant infections will kill more people globally than all cancers and diabetes combined, according to one review. These germs attack young and old. In one study, researchers report an "ominous" sevenfold increase in drug-resistant infections over eight years among hospitalized children in the U.S.
There are at least a dozen lethal superbugs the CDC has labeled "nightmare bacteria." They're causing tens of thousands of deaths a year in American hospitals. But you wouldn't know it reading death certificates. At least half the time, the infection that actually killed the patient is omitted.
Former President Obama's CDC head, Dr. Tom Frieden, resisted requests from victims' families for honest death certificates. Families urged him to recommend that certificates start documenting when infection caused or contributed to death. But Frieden did nothing. It's true that it's each state's decision, but most follow CDC guidance. The agency and the states are guilty of a cover-up mentality. It's time that death certificates tell the truth and hold hospitals accountable.
Health authorities also must stop the conspiracy of silence about outbreaks. Would you choose to give birth at a hospital knowing there's a superbug outbreak in the nursery? Last year, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus, or MRSA, raged through the neonatal intensive care unit at the University of California, Irvine medical center, sickening 10 newborns. But hospital and county health officials kept the outbreak hushed. The truth came out later, when a hospital employee leaked the information. Consumer Reports rightly insists hospitals should be required to notify the public about outbreaks in real time.
What about the federal government's highly touted goal to halve MRSA infections by 2020? Not even close, says leading patient advocate Dr. Kevin Kavanagh.
CRE, a newer superbug, isn't as common as MRSA, but it's deadlier. Patients who get it in their bloodstream have only a 50 percent chance of surviving. That makes it as deadly as Ebola, and it's right here in local hospitals.
CRE is spreading like wildfire. According to one study, cases of it increased about 800 percent from 2009 to 2015, mostly in New York and surrounding states, though it has reached 44 states.
Where's the CDC? Out to lunch. As a Reuters investigation reveals, the agency's flimflam number of CRE threat is based on six-year-old data from a tiny sampling of hospitals -- most of which weren't in population centers like Florida, New York City, Boston or Southern California.
That's no way to stalk a killer.
To get serious about stopping CRE, hospitals should also be testing incoming patients for the germ. Then, precautions could be taken to prevent patients carrying the germ from spreading it to others, explains Dr. Joshua Thaden of Duke's medical school. It's a no-brainer -- except to federal health authorities, who are repeating the mistake made four decades ago, when they failed to recommend testing patients for MRSA and allowed that menace to take hold in hospitals everywhere.
This time, President Trump has an opportunity to start solving this deadly problem by appointing a CDC head who will go to bat for patients, demand honest reporting of infection rates and insist on writing the truth on death certificates.
“Stay away from hospitals. They have germs in there that you can’t find anywhere else in town!”
- the late Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn
There are definitely hospitals to stay away from
Any time you have 3 surgeries and live you are lucky.
There have been some successes treating these infections with bacteriophages.
While I was researching something different a few years ago, I came across a company that sells bacteriophages. You can order ones that attack your specific strain of bacteria. They had at least a dozen for different strains of MRSA.
Probably not covered by insurance, though.
I'm shocked I tell you - shocked. /s
One of the regrets I have from my fire department days: we went to an old man who worked a little too hard in his garden on a warm day and got light headed. Our paramedics were dispatched with us. They found nothing out of the ordinary in his EKG and despite his objections with the help of his family, they talked him into going to the hospital as a precaution. While in the hospital for observation he picked up respiratory MERSA. When he came home he gave it to his wife. They were both dead from pneumonia within a month.
Maybe it was just God’s plan, but if he hadn’t gone in for an unnecessary hospital visit they would likely have had no problems. Going to the hospital as a precaution is not always a good idea.
The federal government telling the truth?
What a sack of horse manure.
We are lucky you made it out well, too! Thank God.
while this is alarming when taken in light of the few cases that there are- when compared to the many many surgeries and hospitalizations per year- it’s a drop in the bucket still- a very small percentage- your chance of getting it is still very small-
This is an outrage. Why hasn’t Trump done something about this?
My husband and daughter have both had multiple surgeries in the last 3 years. Both have been MRSA victims. One getting it from Kessler Rehab. They both beat it, but it took months and months of treatments, and delayed their recoveries.
I work in a hospital.
The people around me are germ nuts. They wipe down everything with these “wipes” that smell like strong bleach. If you have a cough, you are wearing a mask. Period. or you go home.
I would feel comfortable eating off of any surface in the OR. My office is right next to Central Sterilizing. That place is as clean as any clean room.
Most of the patients are walking petri dishes. Their families are carriers of God Knows what...and they slobber all over the place.
If you want to see a mess, go to a day-surgery complex. Those places are not inspected and you know they are not getting the sterilization that happens on an industrial level in the hospital.
I probably get exposed to more dangerous pathogens in a day, touching doors and walking in the patient areas, than most people will see in a month.
The stuff that will kill you is kind of scary. And we fix most of it...
You get it but they don’t put it on the death certificate. My sister got an infection following surgery for a broken ankle. They put something like debilitation on her death certificate.
I’m sorry for your loss- It certainly sucks when it hits home like that- I’ve had close friends nearly die from infections obtained at hospitals- and they went through hell- but I’ve also known a great deal of folks who had no problems despite multiple surgeries-
the infection though was likely recorded in the hospital- hospitals in previous years began recording such stuff, and groups hold them accountable by producing safety reports etc- I’m sure some go unreported- but hospitals have a huge responsibility these days to be transparent and not hide stuff like they used to- simply because being found out will result in much higher lawsuit compensations if it’s found they covered up-
supposedly there are around 750,000 infections total each year in hospitals- of those only 10% die, so around 75,000- which, while it sounds like a lot, is still a small percentage of all the folks who have hospital stays 1/25 will get an infection- not all of which are super bugs- only around 10% of those will die
There is a lot to be done still on this front, but we do need to keep things in perspective- it would be great to get the % down to about 5% or less- but even at 10% it’s still pretty low- Yes it sucks for the 10%- but 90% never get an infection too- or survive infections- I’ve had to face odds that were 38% in the past- and thought that was pretty low- I woulda been nearly worry free had it been as low as 10% even though there would still have been that slight risk
the problem though is that some superbugs live and thrive in sterile environments
It’s only a coincidence that millions of 3rd world and lower illegal invaders are present and new super bugs from the jungles are also here. No connection. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along, now.
Raise your hand if you don’t know five people who demanded antibiotics for a simple upper respiratory.
I work in healthcare also and it just angers me that soap and water are Just disregarded. A lil splash of sanitizer won’t kill it all. Running water and soap still work. Sorry to hear about them. I have seen so many elderly couples glue themselves to their spouses side. It just warms my heart to see that kind of love.. the one that sacrifices their own life and health to comfort their dying spouse. Reminds me of Jesus and the cross.
The constant exposure to the worst scenarios of what one cruel human being can do to an innocent and helpless victim.. I just thank all the first responders for their sacrifice too. so thank you.
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