Hospitals can be dangerous to your health
Infection Killed Almost 19,000 in 2005, Study Says
By KEVIN SACK
New York Times
ATLANTA, Oct. 16 — 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.
The study, which was published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that invasive infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or M.R.S.A., may be twice as common as previously thought, according to its lead author, Dr. R. Monina Klevens. If the mortality estimates are correct, the number of deaths associated with M.R.S.A. each year would exceed those attributed to HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, emphysema or homicide.
By extrapolating data collected in nine locations, the researchers established the first true baseline for M.R.S.A. in the United States, projecting that 94,360 patients developed an invasive infection from the pathogen in 2005 and that nearly one of every five, or 18,650 of them, died.
The authors, who work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cautioned that their methodology differed significantly from previous studies and that direct comparisons were therefore risky. But they said they were surprised by the prevalence of the serious infections they found, which they calculated as 32 cases per 100,000 people.
In an accompanying editorial in the medical journal, Dr. Elizabeth A. Bancroft, an epidemiologist with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, characterized that finding as “astounding.” She wrote that the prevalence of invasive M.R.S.A. — when the bacteria has not merely colonized on the skin, but has attacked a normally sterile part of the body, like the organs or bloodstream — is greater than the combined rates for other conditions caused by invasive bacteria, including bloodstream infections, meningitis and flesh-eating disease.
(Continued here.)
By KEVIN SACK
New York Times
ATLANTA, Oct. 16 — 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.
The study, which was published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that invasive infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or M.R.S.A., may be twice as common as previously thought, according to its lead author, Dr. R. Monina Klevens. If the mortality estimates are correct, the number of deaths associated with M.R.S.A. each year would exceed those attributed to HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, emphysema or homicide.
By extrapolating data collected in nine locations, the researchers established the first true baseline for M.R.S.A. in the United States, projecting that 94,360 patients developed an invasive infection from the pathogen in 2005 and that nearly one of every five, or 18,650 of them, died.
The authors, who work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cautioned that their methodology differed significantly from previous studies and that direct comparisons were therefore risky. But they said they were surprised by the prevalence of the serious infections they found, which they calculated as 32 cases per 100,000 people.
In an accompanying editorial in the medical journal, Dr. Elizabeth A. Bancroft, an epidemiologist with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, characterized that finding as “astounding.” She wrote that the prevalence of invasive M.R.S.A. — when the bacteria has not merely colonized on the skin, but has attacked a normally sterile part of the body, like the organs or bloodstream — is greater than the combined rates for other conditions caused by invasive bacteria, including bloodstream infections, meningitis and flesh-eating disease.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
As a sidebar to this story, read Paul O’Niell’s Op-Ed in which he advocates a “new system could also lead us toward creating a framework for continuous learning by doctors and hospitals. No other sector of our society does such a bad job of learning from things gone wrong. A major reason for this is that the fear of malpractice suits leads doctors and hospitals to withhold information on bad incidents.
If, instead, the government required providers to report every error within 24 hours, the quality of care would rise considerably. In return, rather than having malpractice cases go to the civil courts, we could establish an independent body to determine the economic damage to the injured party and pay it from the general Treasury revenues. For this to work, the medical societies would need to finally step up to their responsibility and weed out incompetent providers.
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