What is the Real Number?
The CDC claims that 1.7 million people contract infections in U.S. hospitals each year. The truth is several times that number. The proof is in the data.
One of the fastest growing infections is “Mersa” or MRSA, which stands for methicillin-resistant Staphlococcus aureus, a superbug that doesn’t respond to most antibiotics. In 1993, there were fewer than 2,000 MRSA infections in U.S. hospitals. By 2005, the figure had shot up to 368,000 according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. By June, 2007, 2.4% of all patients had MRSA hospital infections, according to the largest ever study, which was published in the American Journal of Infection Control. That would mean 880,000 victims a year.
That’s from one superbug. Imagine the number of infections from bacteria of all kinds, including such killers as VRE (vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus) and C. diff (Clostridium difficile). Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently told Congress that MRSA accounts for only 8% of hospital infections.
These new facts discredit the CDC’s official 1.7 million estimate. CDC spokesperson Nicole Coffin admits “the number isn’t perfect.” In fact, it is an irresponsible guesstimate based on a sliver of six year old (2002) data. The CDC researchers who came up with it complained that not having actual data “complicated the problem.”
Numbers matter. Health conditions that affect the largest number of people generally command more research dollars and public attention.
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November 1st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I just read your article in AARP Bulletin(Nov 2008), entitled “A Hospital Germ on the Warpath”.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you have regarding wearing scrubs in public. Any facilities I’ve worked in, you wear your own scrubs to work and leave work in those same scrubs. None are supplied to change into while you are there working and I can’t see the practicality of using 2 sets of scrubs every day…One to wear there and one to change into to leave. And even if we did that, how do we guarantee we haven’t picked up any infectious germs on the way out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
It seems that every one is in agreement about the problem but no one is willing or able to act on some of the new technologies available. How do we move beyond “preaching to the choir”? Our hospital has stated we don’t want to be the first ones to try something different. Over the past year I have heard similar responses from four other systems as I search for solutions to our HAI issues. In the mean time how many are going to suffer?