Staph fatalities may exceed AIDS deaths

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.

The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study.

Most drug-resistant staph cases are mild skin infections. But this study focused on invasive infections — those that enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh and can turn deadly.

Researchers found that only about one-quarter involved hospitalized patients. However, more than half were in the health care system — people who had recently had surgery or were on kidney dialysis, for example. Open wounds and exposure to medical equipment are major ways the bug spreads.

In recent years, the resistant germ has become more common in hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071016/ap_on_...YXMpg8CvLZa24cA

[Jasman0717 9]

Never mind

Edited October 16, 2007 by jasman0717

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Another benefit of illegal immigration. See what happens when people enter the country with no medical exam?

[ajames79 0]

ohh the joys of an anti-bacterial world.

This is what happens when we over do meds. We start to become more and more resistant to everything.

[ajames79 0]

And yes that is a big part of it. Loads of Bacteria is good for you and fairly harmless, but we go around squirting gel and spraying 99.5% of everything to kill it all. Then we become immune to even simple bacteria....

I am not saying don't wash your hands people. Clean your pottys too!

Ohh and chances are that most of you have a form of Staph on your noses right now!

[Aymerlu 3]

ohh the joys of an anti-bacterial world.

This is what happens when we over do meds. We start to become more and more resistant to everything.

Yep exactly. Doctors are to blame for this too. I know WAY too many doctors that will automatically give antibiotics to anyone that calls and says "oh, I think I'm getting a sinus infection." Congestion and a runny nose does not indicate sinus infection!!! I think a lot of people want a quick fix when they don't feel well and think antibiotics will do the trick. Now people are really getting sick because the bacteria is resistant to medication.

[Caladan 19]

And yes that is a big part of it. Loads of Bacteria is good for you and fairly harmless, but we go around squirting gel and spraying 99.5% of everything to kill it all. Then we become immune to even simple bacteria....

I am not saying don't wash your hands people. Clean your pottys too!

Ohh and chances are that most of you have a form of Staph on your noses right now!

Actually, that's not how it works. The problem isn't that we've become immune to bacteria, it's that the bacteria have lost their immunity to antibiotics. Which they've evolved to do due to overuse of antibiotics, not because people use (non-antibiotic) alcohol-based hand cleansers. (Alcohol isn't an antibiotic; it just kills all the bacteria like Clorox. It's just not the sort of thing you could take internally to kill an infection.) And the antibiotics is just due to doctors overprescribing and the enormous amounts of antibiotics fed to cattle. Most staph isn't a problem, but the antibiotic-resistant one is a ######.

There are correlations between over-clean environments and asthma, but hand sanitizers don't cause antibiotic resistance (and if more hospitals had them and enforced their use, we'd see fewer post-op infections.)

The doctors at my school are very good about not giving out antibiotics unless a bacterial infection is confirmed.

--

Last week the VJ intelligentsia were blaming MRSA on universal health care. This week it's illegals. (Unlikely; illegals aren't the ones going to doctors and demanding antibiotics when little Emma has a cold.) Next week it'll probably be terrorists. Anyone going to blame the overuse of antibiotics?

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

And yes that is a big part of it. Loads of Bacteria is good for you and fairly harmless, but we go around squirting gel and spraying 99.5% of everything to kill it all. Then we become immune to even simple bacteria....

I am not saying don't wash your hands people. Clean your pottys too!

Ohh and chances are that most of you have a form of Staph on your noses right now!

Actually, that's not how it works. The problem isn't that we've become immune to bacteria, it's that the bacteria have lost their immunity to antibiotics. Which they've evolved to do due to overuse of antibiotics, not because people use (non-antibiotic) alcohol-based hand cleansers. (Alcohol isn't an antibiotic; it just kills all the bacteria like Clorox. It's just not the sort of thing you could take internally to kill an infection.) And the antibiotics is just due to doctors overprescribing and the enormous amounts of antibiotics fed to cattle. Most staph isn't a problem, but the antibiotic-resistant one is a ######.

There are correlations between over-clean environments and asthma, but hand sanitizers don't cause antibiotic resistance (and if more hospitals had them and enforced their use, we'd see fewer post-op infections.)

The doctors at my school are very good about not giving out antibiotics unless a bacterial infection is confirmed.

--

Last week the VJ intelligentsia were blaming MRSA on universal health care. This week it's illegals. (Unlikely; illegals aren't the ones going to doctors and demanding antibiotics when little Emma has a cold.) Next week it'll probably be terrorists. Anyone going to blame the overuse of antibiotics?

bolded - not entirely accurate. and while it's easy to say that about illegals not going to the dr and therefore they are not spreading something, that too is intellectually dishonest in that a majority entered without inspection and therefore who knows what they have?

[Caladan 19]

charles, the medical establishment knows where antibiotic-resistant staph came from; it comes from staph evolving in response to overuse of antibiotics, not poor illegal immigrants from countries with poor medical care. 'Who knows what they brought in' wouldn't explain why most staph infections start in nice private hospitals post-surgery. Illegals don't make bacteria evolve.

Or are the illegals in the UK now, too?

Lots of problems caused by illegal immigration, but the disease worries are on the TB/hepatitis end of things, not on the antibiotic-resistant staph end of things. (And the visa interview doesn't test for antibiotic resistant staph anyway.)

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

And yes that is a big part of it. Loads of Bacteria is good for you and fairly harmless, but we go around squirting gel and spraying 99.5% of everything to kill it all. Then we become immune to even simple bacteria....

I am not saying don't wash your hands people. Clean your pottys too!

Ohh and chances are that most of you have a form of Staph on your noses right now!

Actually, that's not how it works. The problem isn't that we've become immune to bacteria, it's that the bacteria have lost their immunity to antibiotics. Which they've evolved to do due to overuse of antibiotics, not because people use (non-antibiotic) alcohol-based hand cleansers. (Alcohol isn't an antibiotic; it just kills all the bacteria like Clorox. It's just not the sort of thing you could take internally to kill an infection.) And the antibiotics is just due to doctors overprescribing and the enormous amounts of antibiotics fed to cattle. Most staph isn't a problem, but the antibiotic-resistant one is a ######.

There are correlations between over-clean environments and asthma, but hand sanitizers don't cause antibiotic resistance (and if more hospitals had them and enforced their use, we'd see fewer post-op infections.)

The doctors at my school are very good about not giving out antibiotics unless a bacterial infection is confirmed.

--

Last week the VJ intelligentsia were blaming MRSA on universal health care. This week it's illegals. (Unlikely; illegals aren't the ones going to doctors and demanding antibiotics when little Emma has a cold.) Next week it'll probably be terrorists. Anyone going to blame the overuse of antibiotics?

bolded - not entirely accurate. and while it's easy to say that about illegals not going to the dr and therefore they are not spreading something, that too is intellectually dishonest in that a majority entered without inspection and therefore who knows what they have?

Well... in the context of this thread - I'm no doctor but I believe you can get a staph infection from a person not washing their hands after the toilet.

The point about drug resistant bacterial infections due to the overprescription of anti-biotics is perfectly valid and has little or nothing to do with the political issue of the week. Same with MRSA - the thread that was posted last week explicitly connected MRSA and universal healthcare (i.e. if you want this, this is what you can expect). If we're talking about intellectual dishonesty you have to at least acknowledge that.

The point about illegals not being medically inspected is valid too - but the concern there is not really about Staph infections or MRSA, but things like HIV or Hepatitis.

[ajames79 0]

ohh the joys of an anti-bacterial world.

This is what happens when we over do meds. We start to become more and more resistant to everything.

Yep exactly. Doctors are to blame for this too. I know WAY too many doctors that will automatically give antibiotics to anyone that calls and says "oh, I think I'm getting a sinus infection." Congestion and a runny nose does not indicate sinus infection!!! I think a lot of people want a quick fix when they don't feel well and think antibiotics will do the trick. Now people are really getting sick because the bacteria is resistant to medication.

That happened just last week to a girl I know here...all she did was call her Doc, tell him she had a sinus infection and he wrote a script for her. This girl is "always sick" and to not deal with her (I guess) he just let her diagnose her self is insane. Just happened that most people in the area were experiencing insane allergies that week. Perhaps that was her issue.

My dear friends have one child that has all sorts of allergies (why he has them is anyones guess) one top of that he has asthma, the steroid meds he has to take to breath are making it very hard for him to over come MRSA. I mean this kid has had out break after outbreak. He has to breath, those are the meds that work for him...but he can't seem to get rid of the STAPH...it goes away and then comes back, poor kid. His parents and brother are on antibiotics now, they are to wash in hospital soap, and use a nasal gel med once a month for a year to help him get over this. I should mention that also by doing this it makes all of them very likely to catch other "colds/virus" that are going around. Or so says the dr.

What sucks for this family is that the dad got bit last week by a brown recluse (eekkk). STAPH city there! That is one of the nastiest wounds I have ever seen. Nothing like getting the wound packed with 10 inches of gauze daily!!

Edited October 30, 2007 by ajames79

[Caladan 19]

And yes that is a big part of it. Loads of Bacteria is good for you and fairly harmless, but we go around squirting gel and spraying 99.5% of everything to kill it all. Then we become immune to even simple bacteria....

I am not saying don't wash your hands people. Clean your pottys too!

Ohh and chances are that most of you have a form of Staph on your noses right now!

Actually, that's not how it works. The problem isn't that we've become immune to bacteria, it's that the bacteria have lost their immunity to antibiotics. Which they've evolved to do due to overuse of antibiotics, not because people use (non-antibiotic) alcohol-based hand cleansers. (Alcohol isn't an antibiotic; it just kills all the bacteria like Clorox. It's just not the sort of thing you could take internally to kill an infection.) And the antibiotics is just due to doctors overprescribing and the enormous amounts of antibiotics fed to cattle. Most staph isn't a problem, but the antibiotic-resistant one is a ######.

There are correlations between over-clean environments and asthma, but hand sanitizers don't cause antibiotic resistance (and if more hospitals had them and enforced their use, we'd see fewer post-op infections.)

The doctors at my school are very good about not giving out antibiotics unless a bacterial infection is confirmed.

--

Last week the VJ intelligentsia were blaming MRSA on universal health care. This week it's illegals. (Unlikely; illegals aren't the ones going to doctors and demanding antibiotics when little Emma has a cold.) Next week it'll probably be terrorists. Anyone going to blame the overuse of antibiotics?

bolded - not entirely accurate. and while it's easy to say that about illegals not going to the dr and therefore they are not spreading something, that too is intellectually dishonest in that a majority entered without inspection and therefore who knows what they have?

Well... in the context of this thread - I'm no doctor but I believe you can get a staph infection from a person not washing their hands after the toilet.

The point about drug resistant bacterial infections due to the overprescription of anti-biotics is perfectly valid and has little or nothing to do with the political issue of the week. Same with MRSA - the thread that was posted last week explicitly connected MRSA and universal healthcare (i.e. if you want this, this is what you can expect). If we're talking about intellectual dishonesty you have to at least acknowledge that.

The point about illegals not being medically inspected is valid too - but the concern there is not really about Staph infections or MRSA, but things like HIV or Hepatitis.

Plus, they DON'T TEST FOR STAPH AT PRE-VISA MEDICALS! If you're going to make the 'argument' that illegals are causing the rise in antibiotic resistant staph infections, you really need it to be the case that had they entered legally, they wouldn't have been admitted. The staph bacteria is just perfectly happy to live on your skin and only bothers to infect you through a cut or if your immune system is low. That's why it's most common post-surgery, in the elderly.

Unless the infection is active (in which case you're hosed and too sick to sneak across the border), no test is going to catch it.

It's not like we douse people in chemical showers when they cross the border legally.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

charles, the medical establishment knows where antibiotic-resistant staph came from; it comes from staph evolving in response to overuse of antibiotics, not poor illegal immigrants from countries with poor medical care. 'Who knows what they brought in' wouldn't explain why most staph infections start in nice private hospitals post-surgery. Illegals don't make bacteria evolve.

Or are the illegals in the UK now, too?

Lots of problems caused by illegal immigration, but the disease worries are on the TB/hepatitis end of things, not on the antibiotic-resistant staph end of things. (And the visa interview doesn't test for antibiotic resistant staph anyway.)

i didn't say that illegals made bacteria evolve nor anything about them being in the uk. we both know what the mrsa - uk health plan debate didn't include illegals. as for if the illegals do or don't have the antibiotic resistant staph at one point in time or another, i've not seen anything that proves or disproves that.

[Caladan 19]

charles, the medical establishment knows where antibiotic-resistant staph came from; it comes from staph evolving in response to overuse of antibiotics, not poor illegal immigrants from countries with poor medical care. 'Who knows what they brought in' wouldn't explain why most staph infections start in nice private hospitals post-surgery. Illegals don't make bacteria evolve.

Or are the illegals in the UK now, too?

Lots of problems caused by illegal immigration, but the disease worries are on the TB/hepatitis end of things, not on the antibiotic-resistant staph end of things. (And the visa interview doesn't test for antibiotic resistant staph anyway.)

i didn't say that illegals made bacteria evolve nor anything about them being in the uk. we both know what the mrsa - uk health plan debate didn't include illegals. as for if the illegals do or don't have the antibiotic resistant staph at one point in time or another, i've not seen anything that proves or disproves that.

See my previous. Your argument is now that antibiotic resistant staph evolved in a country with poor health care and crossed the border with the illegals, ignoring two major things: 1) it isn't more common in areas with high percentages of illegal immigrants and 2) that pre-visa medicals don't test for staph, so you have just as much reason to think that staph came in with Nessa, or my husband, or any of the 64 million visitors to the U.S. per annum.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

charles, the medical establishment knows where antibiotic-resistant staph came from; it comes from staph evolving in response to overuse of antibiotics, not poor illegal immigrants from countries with poor medical care. 'Who knows what they brought in' wouldn't explain why most staph infections start in nice private hospitals post-surgery. Illegals don't make bacteria evolve.

Or are the illegals in the UK now, too?

Lots of problems caused by illegal immigration, but the disease worries are on the TB/hepatitis end of things, not on the antibiotic-resistant staph end of things. (And the visa interview doesn't test for antibiotic resistant staph anyway.)

i didn't say that illegals made bacteria evolve nor anything about them being in the uk. we both know what the mrsa - uk health plan debate didn't include illegals. as for if the illegals do or don't have the antibiotic resistant staph at one point in time or another, i've not seen anything that proves or disproves that.

See my previous. Your argument is now that antibiotic resistant staph evolved in a country with poor health care and crossed the border with the illegals, ignoring two major things: 1) it isn't more common in areas with high percentages of illegal immigrants and 2) that pre-visa medicals don't test for staph, so you have just as much reason to think that staph came in with Nessa, or my husband, or any of the 64 million visitors to the U.S. per annum.

i didn't make any such argument. you are the one that brought up illegals first. all i did was dispute that particular statement that illegals didn't bring anything in with them.

Edited October 30, 2007 by charlesandnessa