October 26th, 2007

MRSA alarm is now nationwide, but many docs seem unconcerned

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:25 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Uncategorized, building, environmental health, research, state government, venture capital

Tags: School, Hospital, MRSA, Healthcare, Harry Fuller

Sure, our environment is full of the staph bacteria. But when the CDC recently reported the virulent MRSA form is killing more Americans annually than AIDS, the public noticed. Then cases began being reported from schools around the country. It seemed especially prevalent among high school football players. This week a twelve year old died, apparently from MRSA. He had been a student in a New York City public school. Some parents kept their children home from that school today.

And the general media cannot resist reporting any and every local MRSA case now. A private school in Savannah. In Ohio three school districts reported cases. Four students in Blair County, Pennsylvania. Four more cases on Long Island. North Kansas City. Eleven cases across Indiana including one teacher. Michigan. Kansas. In Arizona one school district is refusing to release information on student or faculty cases. You worried about this stuff? Do not go to Google news and search on MRSA.

I’m still thinking this is a place where some high tech could really be effective, both in detection and prevention. Soap and water seems so horse and buggy in this case.

Meanwhile, a victim who survived is on a crusade to improve how hospitals deal with MRSA. Few hospitals screen patients for the infection. The survivor led fight in Illinois where she lives. That state now requires hospitals to screen all high-risk patients for MRSA. The biggest opponent of the testing law? Doctors. Yet they are at risk like everybody else in a hospital where infections are more common than even high school locker rooms.

Testing can actually help according to a study done at a Veteran’s Hospital. Testing there reduced the annual rate of infrection considerably.