Deadly superbug is here — why isn't it tracked?

[Highway61]

Looks to me like someone has dropped the ball here...and besides, why is it hospitals, office buildings, schools, etc don't have windows that OPEN anymore. You have the same ducts/vents spitting out air conditioning then the same ones pouring out heat when it gets cold. Think they get cleaned out yearly? Think again. Especially with all the germs in a hospital. I've been a nurse for years and this bug has been around for a very long time. We had windows that opened years ago. Aired things out. Now this bug has gone haywire and the numbers of people dying are staggering, yet every hospital, school and office building is sealed up tighter than a clams ass!

From the article:

"Unlike mumps or measles, MRSA cases need not be reported to public-health authorities....A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that the most severe infections caused by this bug kill more than 18,000 Americans a year — more than die of AIDS"

"Why aren't all hospitals screening incoming patients, as they do in other countries, and isolating and treating those carrying the bug so it doesn't spread? Why don't lawmakers require hospitals — and perhaps schools, nursing homes and prisons — to report cases to public-health agencies so they can help control it? What has the nation's top disease-control agency, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), been doing while the Staphylococcus aureus bug has grown so resistant to antibiotics?"

Full article here:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2003958238_mrsa18m.html?syndication=rss

[woodsprite]

1. I tried to report a probable West Nile infected bird this summer

and was told they weren't interested unless it was a cardinal, crow, or finch. They told me to just pick it up and throw it away in the trash can. I read in the paper the other day that Delaware had 5-6 confirmed West Nile infected birds in our area that same week.

I think it's for the same reason - the people who do care are overwhelmed and the people that just don't give a shit totally outnumber us at least 10 to 1.

[Warpy]

2. Why not? MONEY

It's the same reason MRSA is now out in the community.

A friend overseas has told me that she goes to work in the hospital in her street clothes, changes into scrubs and shoes provided by the hospital, and changes back to her street clothing after her shift. That way, any contamination is kept in the building and goes to the laundry instead of being carried out into the community.

A similar policy here would have delayed or even eliminated the spread of MRSA outside hospitals.

Unfortunately, the constant search for ways to add pennies to the bottom line has seriously compromised any effort to control and track MRSA infection. Housekeeping staff in hospitals has been cut to the barest minimum just when meticulous cleanliness is the most important and patient care staff has been cut to a dangerous level, so that infection control procedures can't always be strictly followed.

For profit healthcare is killing us in more ways than just one.