As one superbug seems to be fading as a threat in hospitals, another is on the rise, a new study suggests. This article below, was written by: Mike Stobbe, of Associated Press. I found it in my local newspaper this morning and wanted to share this news.
A dangerous, drug resistant staph infection called MRSA is often seen as the biggest germ threat to patients in hospitals and other health care facilities. But infections from Clostridium difficile–known as C-diff, are surpassing MRSA infections, the study of 28 hospitals in the Southeast found.
“I think MRSA (pronounced mer- sah), is almost a household name. Everybody thinks of MRSA as a serious threat,” said Dr. Becky Miller, an infectious diseases specialist at Duke University Medical Center. She presented the research Saturday in Atlanta, at a medical conference on infection in health care facilities.
“But C. difficile, deserves more attention,” she added.
MRSA, or methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are bacteria that can’t be treated with common antibiotics.
They are often harmless as they ride on the skin, but become deadly once they get in the bloodstream. They enter through wounds, intravenous lines and other paths.
C-diff, also resistant to some antibiotics, is found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis. It is spread by spores in the feces.
The spores are difficult to kill with most conventional household cleaners or alcohol-based hand sanitizers, so some of the disinfection measures against MRSA don’t work on C-diff.
Deaths from C-diff traditionally have been rare, but a more dangerous form has emerged in the last 10 years. Still, MRSA is generally considered a more lethal threat, causing an estimated 18,000 U.S. deaths annually.
The new study looked at infection rates from community hospitals in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia in 2008 and 2009. It found the rate of hospital acquired C-diff infections was 25 percent higher than MRSA infections.
Here are the numbers: The hospitals counted 847 infections of hospital acquired C-diff, and 680 cases of MRSA.
Miller also reported that C-diff was increasing at the hospitals since 2007, while MRSA has been declining since 2005.
Last year, a government report noted a decline in MRSA infections in a study of 600 hospital intensive care units. MRSA blood stream infections connected with intravenous tubes fell almost 50 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to data reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The end.
This above report is disturbing at best, as we are finding more and more “super bugs” that just are not responding to our antibiotics. Being one who has found many antibiotics that do not work for me, it became my heart felt desire to share what I know, and alternatives that work for me, when I have an antibiotic need and there is not one that I can safely take. I will be diligently be reporting and sharing what I know in these regards, with my reading audience.
Copyright © Ruth Ota 2010
http://www.healthfromunexpectedplaces.com
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