News tagged with 'MRSA'

For more than 20 years, the FDA has been urging the drug and agriculture industries to stop using antibiotics in animal feed and water. With antibiotic resistance at epidemic proportions, the agency is giving the public 60 days to comment before it issues new industry guidance.

A published report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds that 67% of the outpatient centers visited had at least one lapse in infection control. An estimated 100,000 people die from hospital-acquired infections every year.

Hospitals could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars if they acted like the top five hospitals in the U.S., according to HealthGrades.

A new study finds that about 48,000 Americans die from infections acquired in the hospital, and that raises the cost of health care by billions of dollars. These are not infections that individuals would have caught had they not been hospitalized, says the study from Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C. think tank.

Antibiotic resistant diseases are an urgent problem that has one immediate solution, backing off on feeding 70 percent of the U.S. antibiotics to farm animals, about 28 million pounds a year.

Scientists at the University of Washington report, samples of sand and water from five beaches around the Puget Sound have tested positive for a multi-drug resistant form of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Dogs and cats can acquire methicillin resistant staph infections (MRSA) and give it back to humans.   Humans too, can infect their pets.  Normal petting will generally not transmit MRSA, but bites will.

More proof that MRSA, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus – is everywhere.  A Congressional staffer has contracted the superbug bacterial infection, possibly at a House staff gym.  It is currently being disinfected, and InjuryBoard has hosted much discussion on what type of disinfectant works best.   

The rate of dangerous staph infections has dropped dramatically in U.S. hospital intensive-care units, a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Prevention finds.

A new study reveals a super bacteria known as MRSA is spreading among children, causing a surge in head and neck infections. MRSA previously had been a major concern in hospitals, attacking patients who are already weakened by disease. But, recent outbreaks in the community, in otherwise healthy kids have raised new concerns.

The Seattle Times finds that no one is tracking the explosion in MRSA rates and there is no consistent policy for screening for the staph infection in hospitals.  Testing and isolation of infected patients and carriers is the only way of containing the infection as well as washing your hands.

The benefits of visiting the gym far outweigh the risk, you just need to use some common-sense and follow a few steps to keep yourself protected from bacteria, infection and fungus that lurks at most gyms - in the showers and on the equipment.

Removing drug-resistant staph from the noses of wrestling camp counselors cut the rate of potentially deadly skin infections by more than 50 percent. Researchers tested coaches' and counselors' noses for MRSA and found about half were carriers. The nose is a place for the bacteria to colonize since it prefers a wet and warm environment.

All of the leading health and hospital organizations are on the same page with this new set of recommendations aimed at reducing 1.7 million incidents of six major hospital infections a year. Washing your hands is still the leading and least expensive measure. Not everyone is doing it.

A new government report found more children have been getting seriously ill from the flu because they also had a staph infection, most commonly (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) MRSA.