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Recently Medicare announced they would no longer be covering the costs associated with hospital acquired infection. Since that time there has been a coincidental spate of publicity focussed on community acquired MERSA infection. MERSA originated and is thriving in hospitals, not the community, in part due to such cost cutting practices as slap-dash cleaning, the use of undertrained overworked staff and assembly line care. Instead of vigorous infection control, money is used to purchase high tech equipment and the construction of lucrative, lavish primary care centers. Frankly, infections make money for hospitals. Why are hosipital infection rates kept secret? Why is reporting not required? All this hollering about protecting choice in medical care, yet we are denied the information needed to select the safest hospital. Is the hooplah an attempt to shift the blame from the hospitals to the community so private insurance will continue to cover the cost of infections? Is it to deflect potential law suits. (You could have picked up that infection at the gym.)? Is it to allow hospitals to avoid addressing issues of infection control which would be "too costly"? Does it protect hospitals from losing the business of patients who would prefer not to acquire a resistant infection along with their knee replacement?
And how about the use of those disgusting, ubiquitous, COMMUNAL boxes of unsterile purple gloves. Could we at least get rid of them?

The apparent reason that people have died from MRSA is that they didn't seek treatment until the infections were overwhelming &/or their doctors didn't prescribe drugs to which the bug is susceptible because they didn't know that this bug is prevalent in the community. Unless people know for sure that they don't carry the bug, cleaning skin wounds with soap and water or alcohol-based skin-cleanser gel, or, if it looks like a skin infection has occurred, a dab of Bactroban on the site and a visit to an M.D. if the infection is not contained within a day of such treatment are in order.

What I think all these comments say, considering what was finally said on the radio this morning, is both Brian and the Commish did a poor job on this subject today, and maybe WNYC needs to schedule an interview with a real expert on this?

More cases begin in the community, health clubs, gyms even possibly in the subway where people touch things, including their noses, than in hospitals. This CA-MRSA (Community Acquired) is evidently a very stable staph bacteria and can live outside the body for a long time.

The problem is when the (BLACK) MALE from Brooklyn and the (BLACK) MALE from Virginia got it on their skin, and it went into their blood and they may have died from septic shock. What else could have killed two other wise healthy young boys?

If this were killing more women than men it would be bigger news, I guess.

It isn't the antibiotic resistance that is so scary. It is that staph has developed new strategies and is more dangerous. Before antibiotics most of us kids had boils at one time or another---there was no epidemic, deaths usually followed severe infections, not pimples or nboils. A subset of mrsa can now incactivate white blood cells and produce and disseminate toxins thatn in prior days remained encapsulated..

This endemic problem never had high mortality. However, now I suspect this will in the future pose a significamnt public health problem. Ask Dr. Frieden about that

c harris md

Germ Fighters May Lead to Hardier Germs

By TARA PARKER-POPE
Published: October 30, 2007

http://tinyurl.com/2xaplf

The above NYT article contradicts what this fellow is saying.

It seems that there is a concerted effort to calm folks down at any cost.

Antibacterial products are dangerous. Frequent washing using proper technique and ordinary soap is the way to go.

Meanwhile, people continue to suffer and die for no good reason.

One of the required things on my daughter's list of school supplies is a container of Clorox wipes. Every child wipes his/her desk, chair at the end of the day.

I think the doctor should also say 'how to' wash your hands. Use hot water, not warm, hot, with regular soap, and clean under your fingernails.

Wash your clothes in hot water, and use bleach for fabrics that come in contact with your skin.

Also people carry this strain and the regular strain of Steph in the front of their noses. I was tested after getting it twice and was found not to carry it in my nose. You can use that bactroban he talked about to swab in your nose if in fact you do carry it in your nose.

Just tuned in and am hearing about antibioitic resistence due to over prescribing - what about the prophylactic antibioitics fed to cattle in feedlots?

....but where does it come from?

What about hospital staff that go out for lunch in their hospital garb then return to work?

If MRSA is susceptible to antibiotics other than methicillin, why, then, the recent rash of deaths from MRSA?

I grew up in Britain and my mother worked in hospitals. Hospitals there found that using tea tree oil as a cleaner worked well against MRSA.

Overuse of antibacterial house-cleaning products, I think, does make people less resistant to general everyday germs - good and bad. And, of course, over-prescription of antibiotics and massive use of antibiotics in agriculture in the US.

Julia

I believe that because so many doctors are either lazy or afraid of being sued they are prescribing antibiotics at an unprecedented rate. How much does this have to do with this particular issue? Won't this trend just eventually make humans vulnerable to more of these infections in the long run?

Is MRSA the same as the so-called "flesh-eating" bacteria we were hearing about some years ago?

I've had recurring staph infections for the last 2 years. They have been on my knee, thighs and wrist. All have left scars and were very painful. Are you more likely to get staph if you've had it before?

What can one do to be safe while swimming in health club swimming pools? Also is safer to shower at the health club or go home a shower immediately at home? Thanks.

Can you ask Dr. Friedman how the Dept. of Health educate institutions (Hospitals, schools, etc.) on how to properly clean rooms and furniture and how does the Department enforce it?
For example, Beth Israel Hospital relies on cleaning people who have no concept of health care. The same cleaning water and mops and rags are used to clean the bathrooms and the floors of the hospital beds as well as the sinks used by the patients and Doctors

This commissioner is underplaying the real community health risk of this potenial epidemic.

Why doesn't he say that blacks, men, older and younger people are more prone to this strain of methycylyn resistant staph?

I got MRSA twice in 2006 from the community, and I had to be hospitalized for 3 days after it began in a hair follicle in my finger.

The other time it was on my back, most likely from touching my hand there.

Other than washing our hands, isn't there a lot we can do to prevent the spread of MRSA looking at the big picture. I.e. using antibiotics wisely? Can you talk a little bit about that, and about our habits of using antibiotics these days?
thanks.

Is there any link between the increased popularity in body piercing and tatooing which could be creating a more virulent breeding ground for staph infections.

I guess Handwashing needs to be added to the course level of Medical and Nursing Schools? We could make another degree for it: Dr. Joe Schmoe, MD, FACS, CHW (certified handwasher). Mary Brown, RN, CHW....

mrsa is the disease of the week.

remember the flesh eating virus?

remember ebola?

calm dowm snd yes, wash your hands with soap and hot water as often as necessary.

This is an appalling conversation. We, grown adults, need to be EDUCATED about washing our freakin' hands?! Good God, I can see the bookstores now:

Handwashing for Dummies.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwashing

I Wash, You Wash: a guide to accepting ablution challenges....

Another sign that America collectively needs to GROW UP!!!!

My brother died last year of MRSA because hospital and health care personnel REFUSE TO WASH THEIR HANDS BETWEEN PATIENTS.

This disgusting situation has been going on for an unconscionably long time--years. What is NYC doing about it?

My son, a senior at University of New Haven CT, had it earlier this year. An infectious diseases doctor was the only one to get ride of it for him. The doctor said thast MOST family physicians are NOT aware that this bacteria 'hides out' in the nose. A simple swab of a prescribed medication in the nose once a day rid my son of it in a matter of days.

Simple things like handwashing, not touching your nose, and covering your face when you sneeze or cough can reduce the spread of disease greatly.

The health department should require restroom handwashing signs in *all* public restrooms in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Indian languages. This should also include supermarkets and delis' restrooms, where the staff increasingly prepare food such as vegetables and fruit salads.

Currently signs are only in English only in restaurant restrooms, and I've seen many immigrant kitchen employees not washing their hands -- even after using the toilet, a source of e coli contamination. I've called this to the management's attention in two restaurants, and the chain restaurant's management did not care, and the locally owned restaurant acted like they cared, but I didn't see them take action. It seems the workers are under great pressure to get back to work, and don't know about handwashing.

We need ads in subways and bus shelters, as well as the immigrant and local press, that educates adults about handwashing, face covering, and not touching one's nose. These ads need to be much more bold than the ones the Department of Transportation are using to prevent bike fatalities. For example, comparing a toilet seat to a subway bar's viruses and bacteria, what those germs cause, and how much time and money someone can lose for being out sick.

Two days ago we found out that my mother-in-law, in a nursing home, has the less contagious strain of MRSA often found in hospital and long-term care settings. Can your guest address the difference between the skin variety MRSA and the healthcare facility MRSA? The Westchester County Health Dept. doesnt' even require nursing homes to report the less contagious strain. Is there any relationship between the two strains? What can patients and their families do to protect themselves while in hospitals or long-term care facilities?
Thanks!