Bacterial Infection More Deadly than AIDS

A common germ has been spreading rampantly across the country, and it kills more people each year in the United States than the HIV virus, emphysema or homicide. In 2005, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed 18,650 persons, and it is spreading fast through hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

This assessment is found in the report of a study conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to be published in the next issue of the American Medical Association’s Journal.

The study analyzed medical records from nine states, where the researchers identified 5,287 confirmed cases of invasive infection by the super-germ, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, which resulted in 988 deaths.

From the data, they figured that MRSA affected 31.8 persons for every 100,000 population; by extrapolating this, the researchers calculated there were 94,360 cases overall and 18,650 deaths nationwide in 2005. In comparison, the HIV-AIDS virus was the cause of death for 12,500 Americans for the same year.

The original germ is an innocuous, very common pathogen. But because of the overuse of first-line antibiotics coming from the penicillin family, such as methicillin or amoxicillin, the resistant strain developed. There has been increasing evidence that MRSA infections are widespread, but the CDC study is the first thorough assessment of just how prevalent it has become.

In what may be its more disturbing finding, the study makes the observation that 85 percent of MRSA cases are closely linked with health care treatment facilities.

• There have been previous research studies that pointed to hospitals and nursing homes as breeding grounds for the dangerous bacteria, particularly since it can easily be transported from one patient to another by attending physicians, nurses, and unsterilized medical equipment.

• The bacteria can be brought into the healthcare facilities by patients who do not know about the infection nor show any signs. Without symptoms, the doctors and nurses are not forewarned. Casual contact, such as a lab coat brushing the skin of an infected patient, can transmit the pathogen to other patients.

• The bacteria are very opportunistic. They can gain access to the bloodstream through cuts and wounds, or through incisions that have not yet healed. Patients with weakened immune systems are very vulnerable.

• MRSA infections are still treatable with other types of antibiotic. But once they penetrate the lungs, causing serious pneumonia, or infiltrate the bones and vital organs they trigger serious complications.

• The CDC recommends that hospitals should work to lower infection rates by improving hygiene; if this does not work, they can later resort to test incoming patients for MRSA upon admission. Many studies observe that busy hospital personnel tend to disregard basic compliance rules on hand-washing.

Safety Tip: Individuals can reduce the risk of MRSA infection through frequent hand-washing and similar common-sense techniques.

~ Staff writer for SafetyIssues.com