Drug-Resistant Bacteria Often Brought Home From the Hospital by Patients

(NaturalNews) Patients who carry drug-resistant bacteria home after hospital discharge can transmit the infection to their home caretakers, according to a study conducted by researchers from Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, and published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Infection by antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a growing public health threat. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3.5 million people become infected with MRSA in the United States each year, leading to 90,000 deaths. In particular, "community-acquired" MRSA infections -- those acquired outside of health-care settings -- are of increasing concern to public health officials.

"In the last decade, community-acquired MRSA strains have caused hospital outbreaks and sometimes replaced older strains previously responsible for hospital-acquired MRSA infections," the researchers wrote. "Conversely, hospital-acquired MRSA strains can spread outside the healthcare system."

The study was conducted on 1,501 patients who were discharged from French hospitals into home care between February 2003 and March 2004.

"Patients with major health problems are increasingly discharged to home health care, which creates new opportunities for the transmission of hospital-acquired MRSA," researcher Jean-Christophe Lucet said.

The researchers found that 191 of the discharged patients, or 12.7 percent, were infected with MRSA. While just over half of these patients were able to eliminate their MRSA infections within one year of infection, 19.1 percent of the patients' household contacts also became infected.

None of the infected household contacts developed symptoms of infection, meaning the bacteria were living only in the nose or skin -- where they could be re-transmitted to someone else.

Older patients were more likely to bring MRSA home from the hospital, and elderly contacts were also most likely to acquire the infection. The contacts at highest risk were those providing care to the patients.

"Sharing the same bed or bedroom, in contrast, was not associated with MRSA transmission," the researchers wrote. "Thus, MRSA may be preferentially transmitted to contacts at high risk for hand contamination during care procedures."

They recommended that home health-care providers follow the same sanitation and hygiene practices that are recommended for hospitals.

Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com; www.infectioncontroltoday.com.

Deadly MRSA superbug has 50 percent mortality rate in hospital patients

(NaturalNews) A recent Henry Ford Hospital study revealed that a new strain of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the deadly bacterial "superbug" that becomes resistant to many antibiotics, is five times more deadly than other previously-seen strains. Fifty percent of patients who become infected with the new virulent strain die within 30 days; other MRSA strains kill only about 11 percent.

Called USA600, the new strain possesses uniquely noxious characteristics that researchers are linking to the significantly higher mortality rate. Study findings were presented at the 47th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Philadelphia.

Typical MRSA strains are problematic because they are resistant to virtually every available antibiotic drug. Most MRSA infections are allegedly treatable with vancomycin, a powerful intravenous drug, but the new USA600 strain has proven itself to be nearly impervious to the drug.

Deadly MRSA strains typically take hold on a person through skin and blood infections, as well as through surgical wounds. While predominantly contracted in health care facilities like hospitals and clinics, the disease is now starting to make the rounds in otherwise healthy people in the outside world.

Experts are associating the increased resistance of deadly MRSA strains to the over-prescription by doctors of antibiotics for all sorts of conditions that do not need them. According to Joel Fuhman, an M.D. from New Jersey, studies show that 90 percent of antibiotics are prescribed for viral diseases, against which they have no effect.

When antibiotics are prescribed needlessly for conditions like a child's ear infection, which is viral rather than bacterial, they do more harm than good by killing off the child's beneficial bacteria. As a result, the child's immune system is weakened making them more susceptible to developing other illnesses and being prescribed more antibiotics.

Europe's Centre for Disease Control warns that if excessive antibiotic use is not curbed, antibiotics will become all but useless and modern medical procedures like organ transplants and neonatal care for babies will no longer be possible.

Modern medicine must also reawaken to the incredible power of colloidal silver in stopping harmful bacteria, viruses, and fungal infections. Studies show that there is virtually no bacterial strain resistant to silver's powerful antibacterial effects. When developed properly for therapeutic use, colloidal silver packs a punch unlike any other antibiotic.

Sources for this story include

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...

http://thenewamerican.com/index.php...

http://www.silvermedicine.org/scien...