Resources For The Well-Informed Patient

ARTICLES ON INFECTION

CHECK YOUR HOSPITAL AT CONSUMERS’S UNION “CUTTING SURGICAL INFECTIONS” WEBSITE LINK

Los Angeles Times: – A new category of bugs becomes more resistant to treatment, and their toll -- which already includes a Brazilian beauty queen -- is expected to rise. LINK

CBS Evening News: – Hospital Employees Taking Innovative Steps To Curb The Spread Of Deadly Infections LINK to VIDEO

NEW! AARP Bulletin: Battling Superbugs – On a cruise to Bermuda in 2007, Baltimore resident Wilhelmina Watnoski was surprised to find that passengers were required to clean their hands when entering and leaving the ship’s eatery. “There was actually a person standing there making you do it,” Watnoski recalls. Her reaction? A note of thanks to the ship’s management. LINK

How our hospitals unleashed a MRSA epidemic – MRSA, a drug-resistant germ, lurks in Washington hospitals, carried by patients and staff and fueled by inconsistent infection control. This stubborn germ is spreading here at an alarming rate, but no one has tracked these cases — until now. LINK

Hospital Scrubs Are a Germy, Deadly Mess – Bacteria on doctor uniforms can kill you. Wall Street Journal LINK

In Hospitals, Simple Reminders Reduce Deadly Infections – ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS, NY Times LINK

Don't let a hospital kill you. – Elizabeth Cohen, CNN LINK

A special light reveals deadly bacteria.

Swabs in Hand, Hospital Cuts Deadly Infections - NY Times - By KEVIN SACK PITTSBURGH — At a veterans’ hospital here, nurses swab the nasal passages of every arriving patient to test them for drug-resistant bacteria. Those found positive are housed in isolation rooms behind red painted lines that warn workers not to approach without wearing gowns and gloves.LINK

Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States in 2005 after being infected with a virulent drug-resistant bacterium that has spread rampantly through hospitals and nursing homes, according to the most thorough study to be conducted of the disease’s prevalence. LINK

Restaurants and cruise ships are inspected for cleanliness. Food processing plants are tested for bacterial content on cutting boards and equipment. But hospitals, even operating rooms, are exempt. LINK

A doctor's prescription: A Newport News doctor who noticed rising MRSA cases among his own patients, finds himself afflicted — perhaps for life. LINK

At a veterans’ hospital here, nurses swab the nasal passages of every arriving patient to test them for drug-resistant bacteria. Those found positive are housed in isolation rooms behind red painted lines that warn workers not to approach without wearing gowns and gloves. LINK

Deadly superbug is here — why isn't it tracked? Anna DeBord, 1, is back home after spending five nights in a hospital with the superbug. Instead of going to her first birthday party, little Anna DeBord spent the weekend in the hospital with a superbug. LINK

Urinary catheter infections account for 40% of all hospital infections, but U.S. hospitals do not have strategies in place to minimize them, according to a University of Michigan study to be released today. LINK