I don't know why I even read news anymore. It makes me feel hopeless when every news story leaves me without actions I can take to change anything.
‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
111–120 of 134 posts
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#112Bear in mind that in the US, our lovely republican party literally made it illegal to research where the superbugs are being bred. In the US, the problem is mostly pig and cattle feedlots that rely on antibiotics to keep the animals from being sickened but he crowding. Naturally, there is no proof that superbugs are coming out of the feedlots, because the feedlot owners do not allow any sort of sample collection by s…
>> Now comes the GOP with the "ag-gag" laws What states are you referring to? Most of these laws that were introduced in the 1990's have all been deemed unconstitutional in the states where they were passed. Not to mention, any other states that have attempted to pass these laws have failed. I'm sure you enjoy demonizing the GOP, but I don't see much merit in your argument if there are no states where these laws are…
Farming Industry Uses Ag-Gag Laws to Silence Whistleblowers - http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=bbc1af3e-520e-...
New Study Finds “Ag-Gag” Laws Erode Trust in Farmers - http://modernfarmer.com/2016/03/ag-gag-laws-erode-trust-farm...
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#113Hello. I work for public health. My job is to support the computer systems that allow epidemiologists to track 'superbugs' (and regular ones). Deathcerts is an interesting dataset. It's not the only one. Even if death-by-MSRA isn't tracked, I assure you that MSRA itself is tracked. There's a specific class of lab test called "antibiotic susceptibilities". The results report includes a bunch of numbers that represent…
Daveloyall is correct. I'll add that pretty much every local hospital system has their own database of antibiotic susceptibilities that is updated regularly so that doctors can prescribe the best antibiotic for the microbe populations specific to their region. Pretty nifty.
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#114Hello. I work for public health. My job is to support the computer systems that allow epidemiologists to track 'superbugs' (and regular ones). Deathcerts is an interesting dataset. It's not the only one. Even if death-by-MSRA isn't tracked, I assure you that MSRA itself is tracked. There's a specific class of lab test called "antibiotic susceptibilities". The results report includes a bunch of numbers that represent…
Fascinating article, but there's NO WAY that Reuters had that much contact with state public health folks without being aware that they track lab results. Misleading!
This shouldn't be surprising. Imagine if Reuters wrote an article that said:
- Everyone acknowledges that superbugs are an issue
- Hospitals are doing their best with their limited resources, but overall are capturing a good deal of data
- The data systems are old, but the CDC can get the data and with some manual work process it, but it takes time
- Everyone agrees that more could be done, but they also agree it's complex and nothing is perfect.
No one would read the article!!
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#115Thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon potion kills MRSA superbug:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/31/health/anglo-saxon-potion-mrsa...
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#116I don't know why I even read news anymore. It makes me feel hopeless when every news story leaves me without actions I can take to change anything.
By design. The dramatic recounting of terrible but rare diseases as if they happen as often as sneezing keeps you reading. Eyeballs on ads == $$$ for the publisher.
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think 'balkanized' is good word to describe some health-care systems in Europe. However I think there is a basic difference in approach. Hospitals in europe are usually uber clean, everything is desinfected and there is a small army of cleaners. My impression from US is that McDonnald was cleaner than hospital. Second difference is post-operation treatment. People in weakened state are left in hospital for a few da…
> My impression from US is that McDonnald was cleaner than hospital. I'm really interested in this. Where were you? Because my impression of the US is that they are very thorough on the small stuff … because they can pass the bill on to someone for taking precautions, whereas they can be sued for not taking them.
There's a reason that people get these resistant infections mostly in hospitals.
Really, unless the alternative is death anyway, you're pretty well advised to stay away from hospitals.
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK, so somebody's tracking it in secret, doing the 'antibiotic susceptibilities' tests and logging the results, and the state health dept receives the data, but the info is being kept from the patients' relatives and from the public in general? This creates two obvious results. 1) suppression of legitimate claims from relatives, and 2) suppression of valid concern and pressure for govt action such as increased resear…
I'm not saying it is good. I'm just saying that there is more than one thing going on here. I don't think hospitals have any motivation to hide antibiotic-resistant infections ("superbugs") specifically. HOWEVER, the motive to hide hospital-acquired infections[0] is clear! Here's some mud in the water: what's the difference between a HAI with some bug that is easily killed by antibiotics vs. an antibiotic resistant b…
You start out by saying that the article is "misleading", and that MRSA is tracked. The article is pretty convincing that it's not accurately reported.
Then you agree with the article that "the motive to hide hospital-acquired infections is clear".
Uhh... That's kind of a huge problem.
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#119 This is almost like going all the way back to Dr. Semmelweis who figured out that you keep hospitals clean or people will die.
Even long sleeves can be the enemy.
I know superbugs are different but the concept is the same.
Re: ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll
#120Hello. I work for public health. My job is to support the computer systems that allow epidemiologists to track 'superbugs' (and regular ones). Deathcerts is an interesting dataset. It's not the only one. Even if death-by-MSRA isn't tracked, I assure you that MSRA itself is tracked. There's a specific class of lab test called "antibiotic susceptibilities". The results report includes a bunch of numbers that represent…
>>but there's NO WAY that Reuters had that much contact with state public health folks
Why Not? They said it was a YEAR LONG investigation...