Tag: antibiotic-resistance

Be Safe Hospital Infections MRSA C.Diff
Hospitalization is a norm of the day.

Even for a minor discomfort bed chasers called Doctors scare you in such a way by saying, ‘I do not think there is any problem, but it is safe to undergo these tests/procedures so that we do not encounter any problems, not that I foresee any”

You are left with no option bit to opt for Hospitalization even if it is for a routine check up.

But the Dangers of Hospitalization is catching on to some disease which you do not have.Worse still is some diseases are very dangerous.

Hospital Infections

“A hospital-acquired infection, also known as a HAI or in medical literature as a nosocomial infection, is an infection whose development is favoured by a hospital environment, such as one acquired by a patient during a hospital visit or one developing among hospital staff. Such infections include fungal and bacterial infections and are aggravated by the reduced resistance of individual patients(Wiki)”

Here is an Overview of Hospital Acquired Infections.

Hospital Infection Details.

“No discussion of patient safety would be complete without covering the growth of superbugs: those infectious organisms that make patients sick, and may even cause death. They are called superbugs because it’s very difficult to kill them with existing drugs, meaning, it’s very difficult to treat patients who get sick from them.
- Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
- Clostridium difficile (C.Diff)
Natural, but Life Threatening

Perhaps surprisingly, some of these organisms are present naturally in our environment without making healthy people sick. For example, about one-third of people are “colonized” with the bacteria staph aureus, meaning it lives on the skin in the noses of people without causing disease. Approximately one percent of people are colonized with the antibiotic resistant form of staph aureus (known as MRSA.) The percentage is higher for people who have been recently hospitalized…

HAIs – Hospital-Acquired (Nosocomial) Infections

An estimated 1.7 million Americans acquire nosocomial infections each year. They are admitted to the hospital injured, debilitated or sick, their immune systems compromised, making them easily susceptible to a colonized infection. Others in the hospital, some sick and others healthy, introduce the pathogen by touching the patient. The superbug takes hold and begins growing out of control.

Further details may be had from the Link provided.

How do we protect and prevent this?

Source:

http://patients.about.com/od/atthehospital/a/hais.htm

Related articles
- André Picard: Concerns over treatment of infections (theglobeandmail.com)
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6 May 2013
AntiBiotics-How to Use and Misuse.
Usage of Antibiotics is very high.

I have seen Doctors prescribing Antibiotics as soon as you finished narrating your symptoms.

People also have a habit of buying the medicine across the counter.

Remember, Antibiotic is to be used very sparingly and the body should be allowed to take care of the infections on its own.

If the infection persists, if it is an infection at all, care should be exercised in taking the antibiotics, under the advice of a Doctor.

Check the expiry date of the Drug.

Over usage will result in your system not responding.

The side effects of Antibiotics are, in some case, very severe.

Read on.

‘Misuse

This poster from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Get Smart” campaign, intended for use in doctor’s offices and other healthcare facilities, warns that antibiotics do not work for viral illnesses such as the common cold.

The first rule of antibiotics is try not to use them, and the second rule is try not to use too many of them.

—Paul L. Marino, The ICU Book

Inappropriate antibacterial treatment and overuse of antibiotics have contributed to the emergence of antibacterial-resistant bacteria. Self prescription of antibacterials and their use as growth promoters in agriculture are additional examples of misuse.

Many antibacterials are frequently prescribed to treat symptoms or diseases that do not respond to antibacterial therapy or are likely to resolve without treatment, or incorrect or sub-optimal antibacterials are prescribed for certain bacterial infections

The overuse of antibacterials, like penicillin and erythromycin, have been associated with emerging antibacterial resistance since the 1950s.

Widespread usage of antibacterial drugs in hospitals has also been associated with increases in bacterial strains and species that no longer respond to treatment with the most common antibacterials.

Common forms of antibacterial misuse include excessive use of prophylactic antibiotics in travelers and failure of medical professionals to prescribe the correct dosage of antibacterials on the basis of the patient’s weight and history of prior use. Other forms of misuse include failure to take the entire prescribed course of the antibacterial, incorrect dosage and administration, or failure to rest for sufficient recovery. Inappropriate antibacterial treatment, for example, is the prescription of antibacterials to treat viral infections such as the common cold. One study onrespiratory tract infections found “physicians were more likely to prescribe antibiotics to patients who appeared to expect them”. Multifactorial interventions aimed at both physicians and patients can reduce inappropriate prescription of antibiotics.‘…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibacterial

Most antibiotics and antimicrobial medications are prescribed to adults based on broad dosage recommendations that do not take individual body mass into account, a system that is outdated, according to an editorial published in the current issue of the British medical journal The Lancet. Whereas children’s antibiotic dosing is generally calculated according to body mass, for adults, no such system is in place, and for those drugs that do have body mass specific guidelines for dosing, adherence is “inadequate,” according to the authors. Drs. Matthew E. Falagas and Drosos Karageorgopoulos of the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Athens point out that, under current practices, a 200 lb., 6’2″ man (90kg, 1.9m) diagnosed with pneumonia would receive the same dose of antibiotics as a 124 lb., 5′ woman (56kg, 1.5m) with the same condition, despite their dramatically different body sizes. While dosage according to body mass is standard in anesthetics, pediatrics, oncology and other fields, when it comes to antibiotics and antimicrobials the dosing guidelines are too broad, the authors argue, and may undermine a medications efficacy. What’s more, in the face of both widespread obesity and the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistance, tailoring dosage for optimal results is increasingly important.

http://healthland.time.com/2010/01/14/should-weight-factor-into-antibiotic-dosage/#ixzz1PKE5hFdh
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15 Jun 2011
Rise of the Superbugs: Why We Are Increasingly at Risk From Antibiotic-Resistant Diseases
We are responsible for this state of affairs.Instead of allowing nature to do its work, we have started doing Nature’s work with out knowing any thing about it.High time we stopped this.
Also it is best to avoid taking antibiotics for our illnesses as afr as possible and allow the body to take care.
The evidence is overwhelming that these new superbugs are at least partially a result of dosing farm animals with subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics added to their feed.
Imagine this: You’re having a normal day until you gradually notice a little sore throat and begin to feel a tad feverish. You assume you must have the flu. You go to bed and rest. The next day, you can barely breathe, and you rush to the hospital. Things go quickly downhill and soon, you’re trying to write down your last wishes – your body riddled with an aggressive infection – while the doctors put you in a coma to save your life. You may or may not make it. Sounds like something out of a made-for-TV script, right?
Now consider: The U.S death rate from the staph infection MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) surpassed the death rate from AIDS way back in 2005.
And MSRA is just one of the antibiotic resistant diseases that can infect people. Others include food-borne bacteria such as e-coli, salmonella, and still others that are associated with poverty and crowding, such as tuberculosis and typhoid.
These “superbugs” I’m concerned with today are the ones associated with food and farms and – though the drug industry and some farmers won’t agree – the evidence is overwhelming that they are at least partially a result of dosing farm animals with subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics added to their feed.
I used to think this was done to keep the animals healthy. And that’s part of it. But the reason it’s necessary is because most farm animals live in such crowded, filthy conditions. What I didn’t know until recently is that farmers also administer antibiotics to help the animals grow twice as fast. This boosts production and their bottom line
In fact, according to Pew, up to 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in the U.S. are given to healthy farm animals, not people.

The problem with these practices, aside from the harm done to the animals themselves who have to live under such conditions, is that these superbugs, which at first only occurred in hospitals, have been unleashed on the community at large.

It used to be that MSRA was commonly found only in hospitals and nursing homes, but recently, another type of MRSA has occurred among otherwise healthy people in the wider community. This form, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA, is responsible for serious skin and soft tissue infections and for a dangerous form of pneumonia.

Though MSRA can be related to farming, it isn’t a food-borne illness. But salmonella and e-coli both are, and today there more aggressive forms than in the past, making these diseases more harmful. Both can be caused by poor farming practices, as can their drug resistant mutations.

There have been multiple studies, farm surveys and stories that make the link between antibiotic use on farms and increases in drug-resistant diseases look increasingly apparent, including in the Academy Award nominated documentary Food Inc. It’s only been recently that the mainstream media has acknowledged the link between animal husbandry and the rise of “superbugs.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/145914/rise_of_the_superbugs%3A_why_we_are_increasingly_at_risk_from_antibiotic-resistant_diseases
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7 Mar 2010