121–130 of 134 posts
Bear 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…
So avoid hospitals unless absolutely needed. Gotcha.
Or only go to the top hospitals in the country. Comparing how the staff at a place like MD Anderson manages sanitary conditions compared to county or state hospitals is mind boggling.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In particular, a potential patient might want to know MRSA case rates when selecting hospitals or other medical treatment facilities.
Or (perhaps more likely) Medicare/Medicaid and/or private insurers might start penalizing the ones that are screwing it up (by renegotiating contracts and reimbursements). I know of one center where executive laziness led to a $2 million fine (completely unjustified) for a line infection in an immunosuppressed patient. Which was cleared up in hours, probably didn't come from the line to begin with, and got said execu…
Hello. 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...
Hello. 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.
http://depts.washington.edu/labweb/Divisions/Micro/antibiogr...
Can MRSA be treated with teixobactin? Now, E.Coli with MCR-1 is also spreading, isn't it?
MRSA can be treated with a number of different antibiotics, including vancomycin, daptomycin, linezolid, Bactrim, and clindamycin to name a few. Teixobactin is not yet on the market or approved for use in humans.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> There’s also a powerful incentive not to mention a hospital-acquired infection: Counting deaths is tantamount to documenting your own failures. By acknowledging such infections, hospitals and medical professionals risk potentially costly legal liability, loss of insurance reimbursements and public-relations damage.
The 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?
Patients are screened for MRSA if they are being admitted for surgery, cancer and a number of other risk groups, or have had MRSA previously.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I stand by my assertion that nobody is trying to "hide" the "superbug" problem.
The human tendency to not self-report failures is a thing. But it's not some kind of biohazard conspiracy.
And one more thing about the death certificates...
> In a statement emailed to Reuters, Frieden said:
> "While death certificates provide helpful
> information, the unfortunate reality is that they
> don't provide in-depth clinical information."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Well yeah. But hey, I'm no journalist. I stand by my assertion that nobody is trying to "hide" the "superbug" problem. The human tendency to not self-report failures is a thing. But it's not some kind of biohazard conspiracy. And one more thing about the death certificates... > In a statement emailed to Reuters, Frieden said: > "While death certificates provide helpful > information, the unfortunate reality is that t…
But the article sure makes it sound like hospitals are hiding MRSA-related deaths, since MRSA infections are often "hospital acquired". And we all agree that hospitals would have an incentive to hide these numbers.
And the apparent under-reporting seems to indicate that this is in fact what's going on. This sounds like a problem! Thanks a lot, dishonest hospitals!