Drug resistant Staph bacteria kills more than AIDS

[Fash]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 92_pf.html

A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus, federal health officials reported yesterday.

The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated.

Although mounting evidence shows that the infection is becoming more common, the estimate published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the first national assessment of the toll from the insidious pathogen, officials said.

"This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried," said Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

Other researchers noted that the estimate includes only the most serious infections caused by the germ, known as methicillin-resistant S taphylococcus au reus (MRSA).

"It's really just the tip of the iceberg," said Elizabeth A. Bancroft, a medical epidemiologist at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health who wrote an editorial in JAMA accompanying the new studies. "It is astounding."

MRSA is a strain of the ubiquitous bacterium that usually causes staph infections that are easily treated with common, or first-line, antibiotics in the penicillin family, such as methicillin and amoxicillin. Resistant strains of the organism, however, have been increasingly turning up in hospitals and in small outbreaks outside of heath-care settings, such as among athletes, prison inmates and children.

On Monday, Ashton Bonds, 17, of Lynch Station, Va., succumbed to MRSA, prompting officials to shut down 21 Bedford County schools today for cleaning to prevent further infections. The infection had spread to Bonds's kidneys, liver, lungs and the muscle around his heart.

The MRSA estimate is being published with a report that a strain of another bacterium, which causes ear infections in children, has become impervious to every approved antibiotic for youngsters.

...

What color ribbon should we pick for this? It's killing more than six 9/11's each year... Cue the 'War on Bacteria!'

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

Red Ribbon = Aids/HIV, substance abuse, MADD, DARE, Epidermolysis Bullosa, love, heart disease- (also uses the red dress symbol), Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW),

Pink Ribbon = Breast Cancer, Birth Parents

Orange Ribbon = Hunger, leukemia, cultural diversity and racial tolerance, feral cats, motorcyclist safety, Multiple Sclerosis -wristband only, self injury, Agent Orange exposure

Yellow Ribbon = Support our troops, POW/MIA, suicide prevention, adoptive parents, spina biffida, missing children (amber alert), endometriosis, sarcoma, bladder cancer, liver disease and liver cancer, hydrocephalus or hydrocephaly, hope in general

Green Ribbon = Tissue and organ donation, depression (both adults and children), bipolar disorder, mental health or illness, eye injuries, Tourette's Syndrome, bone marrow transplants and donation, worker and driving safety, glaucoma, missing children, leukemia, environment, kidney cancer or kidney disease, neural tube defects, Mitochondrial Disease, growth and rebuilding, Cerebral Palsy

Dark Blue Ribbon (Navy) = Child abuse prevention, arthritis, free speech, crime victims rights, water quality, colon cancer, hystiocytosis, domestic violence, water safety (flooding, drowning and accidents), Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), interstitial cystitis, Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), Reyes Syndrome, education, short bowel syndrome, Myositis, Leukodystrophy, Hurricane Support, police officers lost in the line of duty (AKA, the Thin Blue Line)

Purple Ribbon = Domestic violence, religious tolerance, animal abuse, the victims of 9/11 (includes police and firefighters), pancreatic cancer, Chron's Disease and colitis, cystic fibrosis, leimyosarcoma, macular degeneration, Sjogren's Syndrome, fibromyalgia, lupus, sarcoidosis, the homeless, thyroid cancer, ADD, ADHD, alzheimers, cancer survivor (this is a general color that anyone who has survived cancer can wear)

White Ribbon = Innocence, victims of terrorism, peace, right to life, diabetes, sexual assault of students, retinal blastoma, alzheimers, adoption, bone disease and bone cancer, anti-child pornography on the internet

Black Ribbon = Mourning, melanoma, anti-gangs, Anti-terrorism in Spain, POW-MIAs, Amish support

Brown Ribbon = Anti-tobacco, colorectal cancer

Gray Ribbon = Diabetes, brain cancer, asthma and allergies

Lime Green Ribbon - Lymphoma, Lyme Disease, Muscular Dystrophy-wristband only, Sandhoff Disease

Teal Ribbon = Ovarian, cervical, uterine (all gynecological) cancers, substance abuse, sexual assault, Myasthenia Gravis, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Burgundy Ribbon = Hospice care, multiple myeloma, cesarean sections, headaches and migraines, thrombophilia

Periwinkle = Eating disorders, pulmonary hypertension, stomach cancer, GERD, IBS

Pale Yellow Ribbon = Spina biffida

Peach Ribbon = Uterine Cancer, Endometrial Cancer

Light Green Ribbon = Pelvic Pain (chronic), Celiac Disease

Light Blue Ribbon = Prostate cancer, thyroid disease, lymphedema, Trisomy 18, scleroderma, Graves Disease

Lavender Ribbon = All cancers (general cancer awareness), epilepsy, rett syndrome, foster care

Pearl Ribbon = lung cancer and lung disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Mesothelioma

Silver Ribbon = Children with disabilities, Parkinson's Disease, any diseases or disorders of the brain including strokes, elderly abuse

Gold Ribbon = Childhood Cancer

Clear Ribbon = Lung cancer and lung disease, Multiple Sclerosis (secondary to prism)

Light Baby Pink and Blue Ribbon = Pregnancy and infant loss, SIDS, Male breast cancer

Red and WhiteRibbon = Head and neck cancer, aplastic anemia

Red and Yellow Ribbon = Hepatitis C

Red, White and Blue Ribbon = Patriotism, 9/11 victims

Red and Blue with a Heart Ribbon = Congenital Heart Defects (also red,blue and red stripes)

Blue And Yellow = Down Syndrome, designated drivers (The Hero Campaign)

Purple Ribbon with a Red rose Ribbon = Cystic Fibrosis

Purple And Green Ribbon = Hospice And Pallative Care

Purple And Blue Ribbon = Pediatric Stroke

Purple and Yellow Ribbon = Chemical Injury (any chemical related boo boos)

Jigsaw Puzzle Ribbon = Autism

Orchid and Orange Ribbon = psoriasis

Lime Green and Aqua Ribbon = adult stem cell donor

Teal And Pink Ribbon = Hereditary Breast Cancer or a combo ribbon for gynecological and breast cancers

Black and Pink Ribbon = Bone Marrow Donor, loss of a daughter

Black and Lt. Blue Ribbon = Loss of a son

Black and White Ribbon = Carcinoid Syndrome Cancer (zebra stripes) and anti-racism

Black White And Black (three stripes) Ribbon = Vaccine danger

Gold and Black Ribbon = Platelett donor

Ivory, Burgundy and Ivory Ribbon = Oral head and neck cancer

Yellow, Lime Green, Orange, Aqua, Hot Pink Ribbon = Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Orange, Green, Blue, Purple, Yellow Ribbon = STD awareness

[Kaldaur]

Jesus Christ Midnyte. I want to collect them all now.

Where can I get me my burgundy ribbon??

[Winnow]

You'd think a Black and Blue Ribbon would be for Child Abuse or a Domestic Violence Victim...something like that.

[Zaelath]

And funnily enough, staph is so prevalent because doctors cannot learn to wash their hands after touching a patient. Apparently the root cause is that kids are taught to wash their hands to prevent harm to themselves, and people have a hard time learning to wash up to prevent harm to others after 20+ years.

[Dregor Thule]

• Code: Select all

   	                                        Estimate  	                   Range
  People living with HIV/AIDS in 2006 	       39.5 million 	           34.1-47.1 million
  Adults living with HIV/AIDS in 2006 	       37.2 million 	           32.1-44.5 million
  Women living with HIV/AIDS in 2006 	     17.7 million 	         15.1-20.9 million
  Children living with HIV/AIDS in 2006 	       2.3 million 	            1.7-3.5 million
  People newly infected with HIV in 2006 	     4.3 million 	          3.6-6.6 million
  Adults newly infected with HIV in 2006 	     3.8 million 	          3.2-5.7 million
  Children newly infected with HIV in 2006     0.53 million 	         0.41-0.66 million
  AIDS deaths in 2006 	                           2.9 million 	                2.5-3.5 million
  Adult AIDS deaths in 2006 	                 2.6 million 	              2.2-3.0 million
  Child AIDS deaths in 2006 	                 0.38 million                 0.29-0.50 million

While this staph infection problem is definitely a serious issue, narrowing facts to just the USA is not doing things justice, it's merely trying to sensationalize the story. I'm not blaming you per se, but the slant is a stunt.

oh god how do I do preformated text! The first collumn is an estimate, second is the range it could actually fall in.

[Arborealus]

My doctor has told me unless I am facing imminent death stay the hell out of the hospital. He will meet his patients at his office 24/7 to keep them out of the hospital because hospitals kill people. They are polyresistant infectious disease central (sort of like swamps used to be).

Actually I just read a study in JAMA which found that a major factor in disease propagation in hospitals is that they are too airtight...Openable windows dramatically reduced incidence of common secondary infections...All those fancy HEPA air-handling HVAC systems just efficiently move bacteria around...

[Winnow]

My doctor has told me unless I am facing imminent death stay the hell out of the hospital. He will meet his patients at his office 24/7 to keep them out of the hospital because hospitals kill people. They are polyresistant infectious disease central (sort of like swamps used to be).

I haven't been in a hospital in nine years and don't plan on going near one anytime soon. I probably should get some basic blood work done though for a checkup. Motorola had a program where twice a year, they'd have medical people come to the campus to take blood which worked out well...no hospitals and you received a nice multi page report on various blood test results a week or so later in the mail.

[Zaelath]

My doctor has told me unless I am facing imminent death stay the hell out of the hospital. He will meet his patients at his office 24/7 to keep them out of the hospital because hospitals kill people. They are polyresistant infectious disease central (sort of like swamps used to be).

Actually I just read a study in JAMA which found that a major factor in disease propagation in hospitals is that they are too airtight...Openable windows dramatically reduced incidence of common secondary infections...All those fancy HEPA air-handling HVAC systems just efficiently move bacteria around...

Yeah, every 5 minutes here you seem to hear a story about legionnaire's disease being found in yet another air conditioning tower...