Hospital superbugs – 7 facts you should know about MRSA infections
1) Hospital superbugs are tiny spores of MRSA bacteria. They lead to MRSA infections, which are extreme staph infections that are very difficult to cure. They usually infect patients who have open skin sores, necrotizing pneumonia. Sometimes these hospital superbugs may even cause death. MRSA infections may be spread completely unknowingly via clothes, hands, or even flowers and “get-well” cards brought into hospitals.
2) According to the CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – hospital superbugs most often affect those patients who have weakened immune systems or those who come to hospitals to undergo invasive medical procedures. Moreover, MRSA infections in healthcare settings like hospitals and nursing homes may cause serious life threatening consequences, such as surgical site infections, bloodstream infections or pneumonia.
3) In recent years it has been calculated that in the U.S. hospital superbugs killed more people than AIDS. C.difficiles, their cohorts, killed twice that many people. Especially during the past 10 years these MRSA infections have been rampant, with the death toll rising silently. Worst of all is that it all happens right in the place where people come to get cured from viruses and diseases – the local hospitals.
4) Another worrisome fact is that if your immune system is healthy and strong, you may be carrying the hospital superbugs without even knowing it. Only a lab test would show if you have it. Thus, family members may unknowingly infect the person they are visiting, doctors may carry it into exam rooms, and even surgeons may bring it into the operating room! And these bacteria can sneak in via hands, through the nose, or even infect through a wound as small as a mosquito bite.
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The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.
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Wow, that is scary stuff! I’ll definitely be careful the next time I go to the hospital. But is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from these superbugs? Something than can prevent us from getting infected?January 18th, 2011 at 7:54 am