madmark.myfastforum.org

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

Superbugs

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/08/11/080811fa_fact_groopman

Excerpt:

It was the first major outbreak of this multidrug-resistant strain of Klebsiella in the United States, and Wetherbee was concerned that the bacterium had become so well adapted in the I.C.U. that it could not be killed with the usual ammonia and phenol disinfectants. Only bleach seemed able to destroy it. Wetherbee and his team instructed doctors, nurses, and custodial staff to perform meticulous hand washing, and had them wear gowns and gloves when attending to infected patients. He instituted strict protocols to insure that gloves were changed and hands vigorously disinfected after handling the tubing on each patient’s ventilator. Spray bottles with bleach solutions were installed in the I.C.U.s, and surfaces and equipment were cleaned several times a day. Nevertheless, in the ensuing months Klebsiella infected more than a dozen patients.
....

...The first deaths from MRSA in community settings, reported at the end of the nineteen-nineties, were among children in North Dakota and Minnesota. “And then it started showing up in men who have verbenium with men,” Moellering said. “Soon, it began to be spread in prisons among the prisoners. Now we see it in a whole bunch of other populations.” An outbreak among the St. Louis Rams football team, passed on through shared equipment, particularly affected the team’s linemen; artificial turf, which causes skin abrasions that are prone to infection, exacerbated the problem. Other outbreaks were reported among insular religious groups in rural New York; Hurricane Katrina evacuees; and illegal tattoo recipients. “And now it’s basically everybody,” Moellering said. The deadly toxin produced by the strain of MRSA found in U.S. communities, Panton-Valentine leukocidin, is thought to destroy the membranes of white blood cells, damaging the body’s primary defense against the microbe. In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded some nineteen thousand deaths and a hundred and five thousand infections from MRSA.
....

Doctors and researchers fear that these bacteria may become entrenched in hospitals, threatening any patient who has significant health issues. “Anytime you hear about some kid getting snatched, you want to find something in that story that will convince you that that family is different from yours,” Dr. Louis Rice, an expert in antibiotic resistance at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, told me. “But the problem is that any of us could be an I.C.U. patient tomorrow. It’s not easy to convey this to people if it’s not immediately a threat. You don’t want to think about it. But it’s actually anybody who goes into a hospital. This is scary stuff.” Rice mentioned that he had a mild sinusitis and was hoping it would not need to be treated, because taking an antibiotic could change the balance of microbes in his body and make it easier for him to contract a pathogenic organism while doing his rounds at the hospital.

hoop · Joined: 17 May 2008 Posts: 11

With physician's incessant whoredom to the pharmaceutical industry, perscribing one antibiotic after another, they've forgotten what they despartely need to remember (more likely never learned) when it comes to the art of healing.
keep it simple stupid

Cuttings are attractively billable procedures.
Antibiotic admin... just in case... cause they know thier facilities are filthy.

Thier mindless, greedy, neurotic cut-happy shit has got to stop.

Medicare patients.. mainly the elderly..
They shuffle them around like cattle... but then that's all people really are to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.
They have no conscience what so ever (let alone common sense.)

The craziest part of the MRSA saga?
They discharge 1000's of MRSA, C-diff, VRE positive patients from healthcare facilities every hour of the day, as a matter of course.
Insurance has paid to the limit?
Bye-bye! Oh yeah, and here's a script for an antibiotic..
Every moment of every day, doctors freely perscribe antibiotics, but how many impress upon thier patients that they must also re-establish good flora?

Most people have no clue, most think that antibiotics are a magic bullet.
The irony is.. they kinda are, but not in a good magic sort of way.

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

Hadn't thought of that, but of course they are discharging patients into the community as soon as the insurance coverage stops, no matter what sort of communicable diseases they may have.

And I have never in my life had any of the many doctors that have prescribed antibiotics for me since I was a kid, tell me about reestablishing my intestinal and stomach flora. I had to learn that from friends.

You are so right about the elderly also, Hoop. Many of my neighbors in the senior building I live in take thirty to forty pills a day. And the doctors are always diagnosing them with new stuff and insisting on surgery. It's a total racket. As soon as they see that Medicare card, they find something they can charge to it.

hoop · Joined: 17 May 2008 Posts: 11

Mark, it was you who educated me regarding replenishment of flora, and I am forever grateful.

From what is written in regards to MRSA:

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

It may be better in countries that have national health care plans. Here everything is money, so nobody is going to waste time washing their hands or putting on a mask or changing gloves, because that would slow them down so they wouldn't be able to bill as many procedures as possible.