This article was published by Fox News earlier today, March 7, 2012. The article describes the recent increase in the number of hospital patients with the disease Clostridium difficile, or C.difficile for short. The disease is characterized by sever diarrhea, inflammation and bleeding of the colon or in severe cases, death.
C.difficile spreads from person to person via hospital equipment or the hands of hospital staff and visitors. It is notorious in hospitals because antibiotics given during hospital stays knock out protective bacteria, therefore leaving the patient with no defense.
Dr. Jan Patterson, president of Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America explains how “Nearly 50 percent of antibiotics are inappropriately prescribed, killing off the natural protective bacteria in our gut.” This means that your doctor may be the reason you contract a disease in the hospital! Therefore, if antibiotics were administered correctly, hospitals could collectively save about $1 billion that
they usually have to spend on infection. The ironic part is that 94% of
patients contracted C.difficile in healthcare setting like an outpatient clinic or a nursing home.
There is good news for us in Massachusetts, though, because
our hospitals have been following the CDC guidelines for preventing C.difficile.Because MA healthcare workers wear gloves and protective clothing as well as making more accurate the doses of antibiotics given, hospital infections have decreased by 20%.
This article about C.difficile reminded me of the immunology unit that we recently learned about because it deals with the body’s inability to fight infection. Only this article explains how doctors that over prescribe medicine are the cause for the lessened amount of good bacteria that
fight infection. This does promote some tension because it seems as if healthcare systems are getting all the blame for the increase of C.difficile. There are other ways the C.difficile spreads, but
healthcare locations are getting all the blame.
While reading this article, I could not help but think of
how ironic it is that C.difficile is most likely contracted at sites of
healthcare because a person goes to a hospital to be treated, not catch a
disease. I was also surprised that about 50% of antibiotics are not prescribed correctly. I would assume that doctors would want to be as precise as possible when giving medicine, but this article made me second guess myself.
To read the original article go here:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/07/cdc-superbug-transmitted-outside-hospitals/
I think it is great that Massachusetts is following the CDC guidelines in order to help prevent diseases like C.diff from spreading. I think it is scary that hospital patients have to be worried about contracting a new disease when they are solely trying to recover from another illness or injury. This post was particularly interesting for me because I got c.diff two summers ago without even being in the hospital first. The doctors had not seen many cases where a patient acquired C.diff in the community, which led them to take a long time to diagnose me. It is really important that doctors try to stop the spread of diseases in hospitals because they could lead to more severe outbreaks in the community.
ReplyDeleteI thought this article was very ironic because the antibiotics that are used to protect you and fight off infection are the reason why people are getting sick. It is reassuring to know that in Massachusetts we are following the CDC guidelines and decreasing infections by 20% in hospitals. It is amazing to see how much money could be saved if antibiotics were given out properly and in the correct amount.
ReplyDeleteThat's a little bit disturbing that we don't have doctors misdiagnosising and prescribing the wrong antibiotics to patients. I would hope that because our medical professionals are so specialized (and hopefully well trained), that we'd be able to avoid such errors. But perhaps it may be that the antibiotics don't work and that's why it seems like they're not working. A friend and I were also talking about how our society is hell bent on being walking sterilizers. We carry around hand sanitizers that kill off both good and bad bacteria so it wouldn't surprise me if that's what was happening to even mild things such as cuts and bruises.
ReplyDeleteThis article grabbed my attention because C.diff is something that I am unfamiliar with. It is scary to think people are contracting diseases while in the hospital. I am looking into a career for nursing for myself and it is scary to think that diseases are being spread this way in a place I will be working one day. It seems like an easy fix to perscribe antibiotics more carefully and focus on effective sanitation methods. However I agree with Gwen's argument that the concept of killing good bacteria is not only happening in the hospital but everywhere. I have also heard that most hand sanitizers are strong enough to kill "good germs". So therefore, the fix might not be so easy, because of the need for sanitation in the hospitals. In a hospital or a doctor's office, sanitizers are everywhere because in these busy settings it is the easiest option. The one number that really stood out to me was regarding Mass. and with proper adjustments they have been able to lower the spread of this disease by 20 percent.
ReplyDeleteIt's a scary thought that the place that is supposed to help you the most, could actually get you sick. But like Andréa said, it's good that Massachusetts is following the CDC guidelines. I was visiting my grandfather in the hospital recently and when ever they came into the room, the nurses would put on a new pair or gloves and what looked like an apron. This is taking the next step to making sure that the hospital will be even safer for sick people with low immune systems.
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