Our World

Superbug Battle in Hospitals

Hospitals need to start stepping up efforts to prevent infections with drug-resistant "superbugs," which are becoming more of a threat to patients, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Every year, infections caught in the U.S. hospitals kill 90,000 people and cost 4.5 billion dollars. Effective and comprehensive programs to prevent drug-resistant infections are essential to improve patient safety," said Dr. Denise Cardo, director of CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. "Preventing these types of infections requires a constant and concerted effort on the part of health-care facilities, but it's important they make this a priority," Cardo added in a statement.

This article that I read on CNN.com scared me a bit. I think that the hospital facilities need to keep track of such infections and put into place regular programs to fight them. 90,000 people and 4.5 billion dollars, that is way out of hand. "The main mode of transmission to other patients is through human hands, especially health-care workers' hands," the CDC says in a statement on its Web site, "Simple hand-washing is still a problem in some facilities." That is the worse part, health-care workers not washing their hands and then going and taking care of patients who are already sick! It cuts off a little bit of trust now for the people who are trying to help and doing the right things, like simply washing there hands!

posted by Anonymous @ 10/27/2006 09:09:00 PM