‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
1–10 of 134 posts
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#2The question that comes to my mind is, are the European countries doing any better in tracking MRSA, etc. infections? They certainly exist. One might hope a more centralized health-care system, not balkanized like the USA one[1], would keep better records. Do they?
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#3But our gov't is right on top of banning even more harmless plants... (Kratom this time).
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#4Really fascinating to me how some of the problem originates from the lack of proper coding standards:
> As examples in this article show, superbug infections are often omitted from death certificates. But even when they are recorded, NCHS can’t feed that information into vital statistics: The World Health Organization (WHO) classification system the agency uses lacks mortality codes for most drug-resistant infections, though it has codes for more than 8,000 other possible causes of death.
> The CDC added codes for use in the United States for terrorism-related deaths a year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It could do the same for deaths from drug-resistant infections. Officials told Reuters the CDC is instead working to incorporate the codes into the WHO’s next revision of the international classification system. The revised system is expected to be completed in 2018 but not fully in use until the 2020s.
The problem of inconsistencies in death certificates have been around since, well, the history of death certificates: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/07/final-forms
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#5My mother in law, a healthy 50 year old, recently died of an unspecified infection. They still don't know what it was or why antibiotics weren't helping. Ultimately, her lungs gave out after more than a week on life support.
Was it a superbug? Dunno, and nothing in her medical record leaves any indication that it might have been, the world just moved on.
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#6Can MRSA be treated with teixobactin?
Now, E.Coli with MCR-1 is also spreading, isn't it?
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#7I'm sorry for your loss.
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#8I'm sorry for your loss.
wtf is wrong with you?
Edit: commenter made a pretty robotic and insensitive comment. My comment is not constructive, however it can be important to let people know when their behavior or words will have a negative impact on others. A more appropriate response would have been "Wow, that's both insensitive and unnecessary. Perhaps you should reconsider your phrasing."
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#9The question that comes to my mind is, are the European countries doing any better in tracking MRSA, etc. infections? They certainly exist. One might hope a more centralized health-care system, not balkanized like the USA one[1], would keep better records. Do they?
Records are kept at European Antimicrobial Surveillance System (EARSS) or so it seems, at least. Last report (with freely downloadable raw data) I found (2014) is here: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/_layouts/forms/Publica...
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#10Really fascinating to me how some of the problem originates from the lack of proper coding standards: > As examples in this article show, superbug infections are often omitted from death certificates. But even when they are recorded, NCHS can’t feed that information into vital statistics: The World Health Organization (WHO) classification system the agency uses lacks mortality codes for most drug-resistant infections…
Part of the issue is assigning "cause" (singular) of death. I'm still kind of shocked that there isn't mandatory reporting of bacterial vectors (when identified) the way there is for (eg) tumors. Sepsis is common enough that positive identification of the primary strain(s) involved could be a huge unfunded mandate, though, and judging by the way Zika is going, unfunded is being optimistic.