MRSA, Staph, Staff, Mersa, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Symptoms & Treatment

Hospital begins new bugs battle

Link: Hospital begins new bugs battle - Blackpool Today.

THE Fylde coast's hospitals are gearing for war – and they are determined to win. Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has launched a major new fight against hospital infections – and patients are being asked to play their part. Its Ban the Bugs campaign aims to raise public awareness and remind everyone – staff, patients and visitors – what they can do to help reduce infections such as MRSA and C-difficile. It comes as Victoria Hospital pioneers a new technique which will see MRSA cases diagnosed in just two hours rather than two days or more.

MRSA message broadcast throughout hospital

Link: Messages reminding patients, staff and visitors to clean their hands are being played out over loud speakers at a hospital.The 'talking' machines have been installed at Stafford General to try....

Messages reminding patients, staff and visitors to clean their hands are being played out over loud speakers at a hospital.The 'talking' machines have been installed at Stafford General to try and cut the risk of infections, such as MRSA, spreading. A total of eight devices were bought by Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Trust for Stafford General, with two more installed at Cannock Chase Hospital. They cost a total of £15,651 and were paid for with cash raised by the Stafford League of Hospital Friends, donations from various companies and events such as a barn dance organised by trust chairman Toni Brisby.

Late end to hospitals’ deep clean: Express & Star

Link: Late end to hospitals’ deep clean: Express & Star.

Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust is the only one in the West Midlands not to have completed its deep cleaning programme as part of a national drive to wipe out the threat of killer superbugs like MRSA. It is one of only nine trusts around the country which have failed to meet the March 31 deadline. But Paul Farenden, chief executive of the trust, said today they were on track to complete the deep clean by the end of this month. A total of 328 trusts have  undertaking the cleaning process.

Calming concerns about MRSA

Link: Calming concerns about MRSA / nwi.com.

Five area hospitals -- St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers' north and south campuses, St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, St. Anthony Memorial Hospital in Michigan City and Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster -- are working together to institute procedures aimed at containing the bug. Currently, everyone who enters one of these facilities is questioned to determine his or her susceptibility to MRSA, and higher risk individuals are tested with a swab to the nose. Those who are carriers of the bug, whether symptomatic or not, are isolated from other patients. At the same time, the infection control coordinators at each hospital say the urgency of basic hygiene practices can't be overstated. "It's just stressing the importance of hand hygiene and just total body hygiene and being conscious of your environment and washing hands frequently," says Sally Bola, infection control coordinator at St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center in Hammond. The coordinators hope their message of hand washing, using hand sanitizers, showering after participating in sporting events and cleaning gym equipment filter down into community settings as well. Chris Shakula, infection control coordinator at St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, says the MRSA project is also a safeguard to prepare for MRSA challenges ahead. "A patient can come in with a community-acquired strain and spread that strain into the facility and it becomes a blurred line of, is it now community-acquired or healthcare acquired?" Shakula says.

Calming concerns about MRSA

Link: Calming concerns about MRSA / nwi.com.

Five area hospitals -- St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers' north and south campuses, St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, St. Anthony Memorial Hospital in Michigan City and Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster -- are working together to institute procedures aimed at containing the bug. Currently, everyone who enters one of these facilities is questioned to determine his or her susceptibility to MRSA, and higher risk individuals are tested with a swab to the nose. Those who are carriers of the bug, whether symptomatic or not, are isolated from other patients. At the same time, the infection control coordinators at each hospital say the urgency of basic hygiene practices can't be overstated. "It's just stressing the importance of hand hygiene and just total body hygiene and being conscious of your environment and washing hands frequently," says Sally Bola, infection control coordinator at St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center in Hammond. The coordinators hope their message of hand washing, using hand sanitizers, showering after participating in sporting events and cleaning gym equipment filter down into community settings as well. Chris Shakula, infection control coordinator at St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, says the MRSA project is also a safeguard to prepare for MRSA challenges ahead. "A patient can come in with a community-acquired strain and spread that strain into the facility and it becomes a blurred line of, is it now community-acquired or healthcare acquired?" Shakula says.

Team ethic 'keeps hospital clean'

Link: BBC NEWS | Health | Team ethic 'keeps hospital clean'.

Nurses have called for an end to the use of private firms to clean hospitals. They say in-house teams are much better at keeping hospital infections at bay. Why? Each year at the Royal Free Hospital's Christmas party for the intensive care team, lead consultant Steve Shaw makes a speech. In it he thanks one particular group for their hard work - the cleaners. "It is just a little thing but demonstrates how much they are valued," says Dominic Walsh, a senior nurse in the team. I have worked in hospitals which used private firms and the dirt was there for all to see Dominic Walsh The London trust is one of a dwindling band of hospitals to keep cleaning in-house rather than farming it out to private firms. It means the 24-bed intensive care department has a dedicated set of cleaners and Mr Walsh believes this is helping keep infections at bay. MRSA rate down The department has not had an MRSA blood infection for the past nine months, while overall the hospital has seen the infection rate drop by 60%.

MRSA cases 'show deep clean did not work'

Link: MRSA cases 'show deep clean did not work' - Telegraph.

Infections caught in hospital are still at unacceptable levels and Labour is failing to tackle the problems of fatal bugs in the correct way, the Conservatives said today. # Battle against superbugs 'being won' New figures released showed C.Difficile infection cases had gone down but there were still nearly 10,000 cases in those aged over 65. And while MRSA cases have dropped over the past year they rose slightly in the last quarter of 2007. Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, said: “From start to finish, Labour's attitude to hospital infections has been woefully misguided. For years even their own advisers have been telling them that the way to tackle the problem is to identify infected patients as early as possible and then isolate them to make sure others don't catch it. "But Labour have ignored the experts and Gordon Brown has stubbornly chosen to put time, money and effort into a 'deep clean' which made a good headline but wasn't backed up by any evidence.

The war of words over MRSA

Link: 'Not rocket science' or 'No silver bullet'? Media and Government Discourses about MRSA and Cleanliness -- Koteyko et al., 10.1093/applin/amn006 -- Applied Linguistics.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), commonly called a superbug, has recently been a major political issue in the UK, playing a significant role in debates over health policy in the general election held in 2005. While science recognizes the lack of evidence with regards to the effectiveness of existing measures implemented to control and prevent MRSA, the UK media coverage is dominated by articles that appeal to common sense and practical experience calling for more government interventions to combat the bug. In this paper we explore how uncertainty surrounding the origin and spread of MRSA is portrayed in debates within the media and policy-circles to particular political ends. Using established techniques of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, we examine the assumptions, judgements, and contentions that structure two discourses of MRSA: according to one discourse MRSA is ‘not rocket science’ and there are ‘simple’ ways of coping with the risk of infection, whereas according to another discourse MRSA is a more complex matter and there is ‘no silver bullet’. The analysis of different storylines through which specific ideas of ‘blame’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘urgency’ are attributed helps to explain how different ‘constructions’ of causes for the rise in MRSA emerged and led to discourses of blame and defence centred on cleanliness.

Hospitals are dangerous and dirty places, says GP

Link: Hospitals are dangerous and dirty places, says GP | News.

A leading north London GP has criticised hospitals as "dangerous and dirty places" where the sick should only be treated as a last resort. Paddy Glackin, who heads a doctors' group representing 250,000 patients, told the Standard many hospitals are impersonal where old people beg not to be sent for treatment. He said: "Hospitals are dangerous and dirty places on the whole. It's well established and the figures are there that many people die in hospitals not just because they are ill but because they actually get ill in hospital. "The bugs that are running around in hospitals are incredibly dangerous." Dr Glackin is a GP in Islington but also chairman of the Camden Local Medical Committee, a body representing about 400 doctors in the borough.

Bringing hospital infections down to zero

Link: Bringing hospital infections down to zero - Examiner.com.

Maryland hospital safety experts are looking at a new standard for many preventive infections and mishaps that can harm the most vulnerable patients: zero. “Zero is the answer. It’s been a tremendous cultural change in this state,” said Dr. Bill Minogue, director of the Maryland Patient Safety Center. “We’ve almost eliminated central line [IV] infections in the state. It’s been zero in many hospitals for many, many months.” Many of those infections, Minogue said, involved drug-resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria.